WOODRUFF 
FIFTY  YEARS  AGO 


LIBRARY  OF  THE 
UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
AT  URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 


UttfiiS  iOittCAL  SIHYEY 


Years   Ago: 


OR, 


GLEANINGS 


RESPECTING   THE 


HISTORY  OF  NORTHERN    ILLINOIS 


A  FEW  YEARS  PREVIOUS  TO,  AND 
DURING  THE 


3Y 

G.  H.  WOODRUFF 

AUTHOU  OF  "FORTY  YEARS  AGO,"  AND  "FIFTEEN  YEARS  AGO 
CORRESPONDING  MEMBER  OF  THE  STATE  HISTORICAL 
SOCIETY  OF  WISCONSIN. 

4 


4 

<  |  J  O  L I  E  T  : 

JOHKT    REPUBLIC    AND    SUN    PRINT. 
4  1883. 

/T^TTT'TTTT'^T 


FIFTY  YEARS  AGO: 


OR, 


GLEANINGS 


RESPECTING  THB 


HISTORY  OF  NORTHERN   ILLINOIS 


A  FEW  YEARS  PREVIOUS  TO,  AND 
DURING  THE 


BLACK   HAWK  WAR 


3Y 


G.  H.  WOODRUFF, 

ATJTHOK  OF  "FORTY  YEARS  AGO,"  AND  "FIFTEEN  YEARS  AGO" 

CORRESPONDING  MEMBER  OF  THE  STATE  HISTORICAL 

8OCIKTY  OF  WISCONSIN. 


JOLIET: 

JOLIKT    REPUBLIC    AND    SUN    PRINT. 

1883. 


/    '   '  ' 


INTRODUCTORY. 


fl? 

[AVING  been  somewhat  instrumental  in  fixing  on  the  2nd 
day  of  August  as  the  day  for  the  Pidneers  Re-union  for  1882 
in  Will  county,  and  in  giving  to  the  meeting  a  semi-centennial 
odor,  we  felt  called  upon  to  justify  our  course  by  a  brief  review  of 
the  events  of  fifty  years  ago,  particularly  as  they  related  to  this  por- 
tion of  Northern  Illinois.  Hence,  the  series  of  Historical  Gleanings, 
which  appeared  in  the  REPUBLIC  during  the  few  weeks  pre- 
ceding the  meeting. 

It  was  believed  that  while  there  were  a  few  of  our  older  citizens 
to  whom  the  events  were  a  memory,  yet  the  later  generation  were,  for 
the  most  part  ignorant  of  them,  and  likely  to  remain  so,  inasmuch  as 
the  accounts  of  them  which  have  been  preserved  are  scattered  through 
various  county  histories,  local  sketches  and  pamphlets,  which  are  not 
accessible  to  the  general  public  without  more  trouble  than  most 
persons  would  be  willing  to  take.  It  was  thought,  therefore,  that  it 
would  be  a  good  thing  to  gather  up  the  facts  and  incidents  and 
4o  weave  them  into  a  connected  narrative,  which  would  post  all  who 
desire  it  in  the  history  of  this  region  fifty  years  ago.  Some  of  our 
friends  have  flattered  us  with  the  suggestion  that  they  were  worthy 
of  re-publication  in  a  more  convenient  form  for  preservation. 

We  only  claim  for  them  that  they  are  gleanings,  although  con- 
siderable has  been  obtained  by  personal  conversation  and  correspon^ 
dence  with  living  survivors,  who  were  actors  and  sufferers  in  the 
events  narrated.  Wherever  we  have  found  a  statement  bearing 
apon  the  subject  we  have  appropriated  it  without  a  scruple,  giving, 
generally,  the  source  of  information.  The  first  pages  go  back  to  an 
earlier  date,  but  it  will  be  seen  that  they  lead  up  to  the  subject. 


HISTORICAL    GLEANINGS. 


PONTIAC. 

According  to  a  tradition  which  we  are  disposed  to  believe, 
Will  county  was  for  a  while  the  residence  of  a  great  historic 
character,  the  renowned  Ottawa  Chief,  Pontiac.  The  long  and 
bloody  contest  between  England  on  the  one  side,  and  the  French 
and  Indians  on  the  other,  terminated  in  the  treaty  of  peace  at 
Paris  in  1763.  The  most  powerful  ally  of  the  French  in  the 
war  for  the  possession  of  the  territory  included  under  the  term 
New  France,  had  been  this  noted  Chief.  He  did  not  consider 
himself  bound  by  this  treaty,  in  the  making  of  which  the 
French  had  not  consulted  their  Indian  allies.  Pontiac  organized 
a  conspiracy  of  the  various  tribes  over  which  he  was  a  recognized 
Chief,  and  succeeded  in  capturing  various  outposts  and  in  butch- 
ering and  stampeding  hundreds  of  frontier  families.  He  besieged 
Detroit  for  six  months,  but  was  defeated  in  his  attempt  to  get 
possession  of  that  post,  and  the  Indians  finally  sued  for  peace, 
and  a  treaty  waft  concluded  between  the  English  and  the  Western 
tribes  in  August,  1764.  Pontiac,  disgusted  with  the  result  of  the 
contest,  left  his  native  region,  where  he  had  held  so  long  and  so 
extended  a  sway,  and  with  a  remnant  of  his  Ottawa  warriors — 
about  200  and  their  families — retired  farther  West.  According 
to  tradition,  he  settled  on  the  banks  of  the  beautiful  Kankakee. 
There  are  various  and  conflicting  traditions  of  his  death.  We 
gave  one  in  "  Forty  Years  Ago,"  which  we  found  in  one  of  the 
books  of  Western  Annals,  written  by  N.  Matson,  of  Bureau 
county.  According  to  this  tradition  he  was  assassinated  by  a  Chief 
of  the  Illinois  at  a  council  held  near  the  Joliet  Mound,  in  1769. 


€  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago. 

Pontiac  was  without  doubt  one  of  the  most  gifted  and  brav- 
est of  Indian  Chiefs  who  have  figured  in  our  history.  It  is 
related  of  him  that  while  carrying  on  the  siege  of  Detroit,  and 
running  low  in  funds,  he  supplied  his  commissariat  by  issuing 
scrip  made  of  birch  bark  bearing  his  u  totem,"  as  the  only 
security  for  its  redemption.  It  is  also  said  that  he  promptly 
redeemed  the  issue — a  thing  which  c^uld  not  be  said  of  a  large 
amount  of  Michigan  paper  subsequently  issued  by  white  men. 

This  remnant  of  Ottawa  Indians  was  ultimately  merged  in 
the  Pottawatamie  tribe,  and  their  principal  village  is  said  to  have 
been  on  the  Kankakee,  not  far  from  the  present  city  of  Wilming- 
ton. It  was  at  this  village  that 


SHABBONEE 


an  Indian  who  has  figured  largely  in  our  more  recent  frontier 
history,  was  born  in  1776.  This  was  his  own  statement  often 
made  to  different  parties  still  living.  He  was  born  of  Ottawa 
parents  who  accompanied  Pontiac  in  his  retirement  to  the  Kan- 
kakee. Shabbonee  became  a  Chief  of  the  Pottawatamie  tribe, 
by  reason  of  the  fact  that  he  had  married  for  his  first  wife  a 
daughter  of  a  Pottawatamie  Chief  named  Spotka,  who  had  a 
village  near  the  mouth  of  the  Fox  river,  and  on  his  death  was 
chosen  his  successor.  As  Shabbonee  became  prominent  in  the  early 
history  of  this  region,  and  was  well  known  to  the  early  settlers  of 
this  and  adjacent  counties,  and  especially  because  he  rendered 
important  service  to  the  whites,  his  memory  should  be  gratefully 
cherished,  and  the  leading  facts  of  his  life  and  character  should 
be  preserved.  N.  Matson,  Esq.,  of  Bureau  county,  who  was  for 
many  years  well  acquainted  with  Shabbonee,  has  written  the 
most  extended  notice  of  him  that  we  have  seen.  As  soon  as 
Shabbonee,  at  the  death  of  Spotka,  his  father-in-law,  became  his 
successor,  he  removed  his  village  from  the  Illinois  river  to  a 
healthier  locality  on  the  head  of  Big  Indian  Creek,  to  a  beautiful 
grove  in  the  present  limits  of  DeKalb  county.  There  the  tribe 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago.  7 

had  their  home  for  nearly  fifty  years,  and  the  grove  became  a 
land  mark  known  as  Shabbonee's  grove.  It  contained  a  fine 
sugar  camp  and  a  beautiful  spring.  The  woods  abounded  in  game, 
the  creek  in  fish,  while  the  adjacent  prairie  furnished  rich  com 
land. 

TECUMSEH. 

In  1807  Shabbonee  visited  the  Wabash  country  and  became 
acquainted  with  the  Shawnee  Chief,  Tecumseh,  to  whom  he 
became  warmly  attached.  Tecum.ieh,  who  was  about  sevea 
years  the  senior  of  Sbabbonee,  had  conceived  in  his  mind  the 
project  of  uniting  all  the  Western  tribes  in  a  league  to  prevent 
the  further  granting  of  lands  to  the  whites,  except  on  the  consent 
of  the  whole  confederation.  In  pursuance  of  this  plan  Tecumseb 
traveled  very  extensively  among  the  Southern  and  Western 
tribes.  In  1810  he  visited  Shabbonee,  as  well  as  several  other 
Pottawatamie  Chiefs,  known  by  the  names  Saug-a-nash  (Billy 
Caldwell)  Senachwine,  Black  Partridge,  Comas  and  Gomo» 
From  none  of  them  did  he  get  much  encouragement.  Shabbonee 
accompanied  him  along  the  Rock  river  and  Mississippi. 

In  1811  he  accompanied  Tecumseh  to  the  counsel  held  witb 
Gen.  Harrison  at  Vincennee,  which  broke  up  without  effecting 
any  agreement.  They  then  together  visited  the  southern  tribes. 
About  two  weeks  after  the  battle  of  Tippecanoe  they  returned  to 
the  Wabash.  This  battle  had  been  brought  on  by  Tecumseh's 
brother,  the  Prophet,  against  his  wishes,  as  his  plans  were  not 
ripe  for  action. 

Shabbonee,  much  as  he  loved  and  admired  Tecumseh,  does 
not  seem  to  have  fully  sympathized  with  him  in  his  plans  of 
attacking  the  white  settlements. 

In  1812  Tecumseh  sent  runners  along  the  Illinois  informing 
the  Indians  of  the  war  between  England  and  the  United  States, 
and  offering  "  big  money "  if  they  would  take  the  side  of 
England.  Shabbonee  intended  to  remain  neutral,  but  learning. 


8  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago. 

that  a  large  party  from  other  villages,  and  some  from  his  own, 
had  left  for  Chicago,  he  mounted  his  pony  and  followed  He 
reached  there  a  few  hours  after  the  massacre,  and  his  mild  and 
peace-loviag  spirit  was  shocked  at  the  blood  and  carnage  there 
exhibited;  and  it  was,  no  doubt,  largely  owing,  to  his  influence, 
that  the  survivors  were  spared. 

Late  in  the  autumn  of  that  year,  as  Shabbonee's  band  were 
about  to  start  out  on  their  winter  hunt,  emissaries  from  Tecumseh 
arrived  at  Shabbonee's  village.  They  were  loaded  with  gew- 
gaws so  dear  to  the  female  heart,  whether  savage  or  civilized, 
supplied  no  doubt  by  British  gold,  Tecumseh  had  also  sent  the 
wampum  belt  to  Shabbonee  asking  him  to  join  in  the  war  on  the 
side  of  the  British,  and  promising  in  their  name  large  reward. 
These  runners  also  stated,  falsely,  that  all  the  bands  along  the 
river  had  agreed  to  aid  him.  Deceived  by  these  statements  the 
hunt  was  abandoned,  and  Shabbonee,  with  twenty-two  warriors 
started  for  the  seat  of  war.  He  remained  in  the  service  as  an  aid  . 
to  Tecumseh  until  the  close  of  the  war,  and  was  by  the  side  of 
the  great  chieftain  when  he  received  his  death  blow  at  the  battle 
of  the  Thames. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Shabbonee  regretted  having  joined 
the  side  of  the  British  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  that  he  fully 
determined  not  to  join  in  further  hostilities  against  the  white 
settlers  in  the  West.  His  subsequent  conduct,  as  we  shall  see, 
was  so  fully  in  accordance  with  that  resolution  that  he  came  at 
last  to  be  known  as  the  white  man's  friend. 

At  the  battle  of  the  Thames  there  was  present  aiding 
Tecumseh  also,  Saug-a-nash,  or  Billy  Caldwell,  who  being  the 
son  of  an  Irish  officer  in  the  British  service,  and  a  Pottawatamie 
squaw,  was  entitled  to  both  an  English  and  an  Indian  name. 
He  was  a  man  of  intelligence  and  education,  having  been  edu- 
•cated  by  the  Jesuits  of  Detroit;  and,  at  the  time  of  kis 
death  was  head  chief  of  the  combined  nation  of  Pottawatamies, 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago.  9 

Ottawas  and  Chippevvas.  He  was  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  at  Chi- 
cago under  Peoria  county  in  1826.  Shabbonee  had  in  his 
possession  a  paper  which  he  highly  valued  being  a  certificate  of 
Caldwell's  given  at  Amherstburg  (Fort  Maiden)  in  1816,  in 
which  he  certifies  to  the  fact  that  Shabbonee  was  with  Tecumseh 
at  the  battle  of  the  Thames,  and  concludes  by  saying,  "  I  also 
have  been  witness  to  his  intrepidity  and  courageous  warfare  on 
many  occasions,  and  he  showed  a  great  deal  of  humanity  to  those 
unfortunate  sons  of  Mars  who  fell  into  his  hands.  [Signed,] 

B.  CALDWELL, 
Captain  I.  D.  (Ind.  Dept.) 

The  celebrated  Sac  Chief,  Black  Hawk,  was  also  present  at 
the  battle  of  the  Thames,  fighting  on  the  side  of  the  British.* 

FOOD   FOR   THE   NOVELIST. 

In  reading  up  the  aboriginal  and  pioneer  history  of 
Northern  Illinois,  we  have  been  struck  with  the  abundant  ma- 
terial it  furnishes  for  the  novelist.  A  series  of  historical  roman- 
ces, rivaling  in  interest  those  of  Cooper,  could  be  woven  out  of 
its  veritable  history,  from  the  times  of  Joliet  and  LaSalle  and 
the  Jesuit  missionaries,  to  the  close  of  the  Black  Hawk  war. 
From  Mackinaw  to  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois,  and  westward  to 
the  Mississippi,  ample  room  is  furnished  for  the  movement  of  his 
characters,  with  picturesque  and  interesting  localities  on  which 
to  exercise  his  powers  of  description — while  every  stream  and 

*  NOTE.— Since  writing  the  above  we  have  received  a  new  book  of  Mr. 
Matson's  entitled  "Pioneers  of  Illinois,"  in  which  he  gives  his  authority 
for  his  version  of  the  settlement  of  Pontiac  on  the  Kankakee,  and  the 
place  and  the  manner  of  his  death.  He  also  explaines  at  length  the  way 
in  which  the  account  of  his  death  as  given  by  Parkman  and  others, 
originated.  Mr.  Matson  has  paid  great  attention  for  many  years  to  the 
aboriginal  history  of  Illinois,  and  is  we  think  entitled  to  thanks  and  credit 
as  a  careful  historian. 


io  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago. 

grove,  every  island,  mound  and  bluff,  is  rich  in  traditionary  lore. 
And  then,  what  an  endless  variety  of  marked,  peculiar,  repre- 
sentative characters  :  Thefirst  explorers  and  Jesuit  missionaries ; 
the  fur  traders,  French,  English  and  American;  Indian  chiefs 
and  braves;  dusky  beauties  and  captive  white  maidens;  the  later 
pioneers  and  Protestant  missionaries;  hunters  and  trappers; 
saints  and  sinners,  holy  men  and  incarnate  devils  —all  are  waiting 
to  be  made  immortal  by  the  pen  of  genius;  while  innumerable 
wars  and  massacres,  hunts,  councils,  treaties,  payments,  war 
dances,  dog  feasts,  pow-wows,  and  all  the  peculiar  customs,  super- 
stitions and  habits  of  savage  and  frontier  life  furnish  an  exhaust- 
less  fund  of  incident  and  illustration.  Have  we  no  Cooper 
among  us  to  utilize  thie  mine  of  historic  wealth,  and  to  transmute 
its  rough  ore  into  the  burnished  gold  of  romance? 

After  the  war  of  1812,  Shabbonee  and  Satig-a-nash,  having 
lost  all  faith  in  British  promises,  visited  General  Cass  at  Detroit, 
and  gave  their  formal  adherence  to  the  U.  S.  Government.  Both, 
no  doubt,  regretted  having  espoused  the  British  side.  On  the 
24th  of  August,  1816,  at  St.  Louis,  a  treaty  was  concluded  by 
the  United  States  with  the  Indians  of  the  Northwest,  represented 
by  twenty  three  Pottawatamie,  three  Ottawa  and  two  Chippewa 
Chiefs,  by  which  these  tribes  ceded  to  Uncle  Sam  all  their  lands 
lying  between  the  Illinois  and  Mississippi  rivers,  and  also  a  large 
district  west  of  Lake  Michigan.  Shabbonee  was  present  and  one 
of  the  signers  of  the  treaty.  In  1819  this  tract  was  surveyed 
under  the  direction  of  U.  S.  Commissioners.  Shabbonee  aided 
the  surveyors,  and  with  his  hunters  supplied  the  corps  with  game. 

CASS   AND   THE   WINNEBAGO   WAR. 

In  July,  in  the  year  of  1827,  occurred  another  speck  of 
war,  called  the  Winnebago  war,  and  sometimes  "  the 
Winnebago  scare."  Fort  Dearborn  was  at  this  time  without  a 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago.  11 

garrison.  It  is  no  wonder  then  that  the  few  inhabitants  of 
Chicago  were  filled  with  alarm.  Gen.  Cass  had  gone  to  Green 
Bay  by  appointment  to  hold  a  treaty  with  the  Winnebago  and 
Menominee  tribes,  who  failed  to  meet  him  there.  He  learned 
the  cause  to  be  a  war  with  the  whites  on  the  upper  Mississippi. 
He  at  once  started  on  the  journey  around  by  the  Fox,  Wisconsin 
and  the  Mississippi  rivers  to  St.  Louis,  from  whence  he  despatched 
a  steamer  with  troops  to  the  relief  of  the  whites.  On  his  return 
by  the  way  of  the  Illinois  and  Des  Planes,  he  warned  the  set- 
tlers of  their  danger,  and  also  met  various  Indian  chiefs  along 
the  route,  making  them  presents,  and  using  every  argument  to 
keep  them  from  aiding  the  hostiles.  Among  others  ihe  had  an 
interview  with  Shabbonee.  This  Chief  was  heartily  in  accord 
with  Gen.  Cass,  and  used  all  his  influence  with  his  own  and 
other  bands  to  prevent  them  from  taking  the  war  path, 

Cass  spent  a  night  at  Ottawa  with  Dr.  David  Walker,  and  in 
consequence  of  the  news  he  brought  a  fort  was  at  once  com- 
menced on  the  south  side  of  the  river.  Gov.  Cass  went  OB  up 
the  river  and  over  the  divide  through  Mud  lake,  and  down  the 
Chicago  river,  awaking  the  echos  along  its  classic  banks  with  the 
boat  song  of  the  thirteen  voyagers,  led  by  Robert  Forsythe,  the 
Governor's  Secretary.  They  gave  the  people  of  Chicago  the  first 
news  of  the  outbreak. 

And  here  let  us  say,  parenthetically,  that  this  was  not  the 
Governor's  first  passage  up  the  valley  of  the  Illinois  and  Des 
Planes.  In  1821,  accompanied  by  Henry  R,  Schoolcraft  and 
others,  under  the  sanction  of  the  U.  S.  Government,  he  made  an 
excursion  down  the  Wabash  and  Ohio  and  up  the  Mississippi  to 
St.  Louis,  from  which  place  he  journeyed  to  Chicago  for  the  pur- 
pose of  holding  a  treaty  with  the  chiefs  and  head  men  of  the 
Ottawa,  Chippewa  and  Pottawatamie  tribes  for  a  large  tract  of 
land  in  Michigan.  After  voyaging  up  the  Illinois  te  Starved 
Rock  they  obtained  horses  and  made  the  rest  of  the  journey  on 


12  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago. 

horseback.  They  turned  aside  from  their  route  and  visited  the 
junction  of  the  Kankakee  and  Des  Planes,  for  the  especial  pur- 
pose of  examining  the  celebrated  fossil  tree  that  lies  embedded 
(so  much  as  is  left  of  it)  in  the  Des  Planes  near  its  mouth.  This 
fossil  is  fully  described  by  Schoolcraft  in  a  memoir  published  by 
him  at  Albany  in  1822.  This  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
fossils  ever  discovered,  of  a  vegetable  origin.  Specimens  of  it 
have  been  widely  distributed.  Gov.  Cass  obtained  several  at  the 
time  of  this  visit,  one  of  which  he  sent  to  the  University  of 
Cambridge.  It  has  been  generally  thought  to  have  been  a  black 
walnut  tree.  Schoolcraft  gives  the  size  of  the  part  exposed, 
length  51.  feet  and  some  inches,  and  the  diameter  at  large  end, 
three  feet.  Thomas  Tousey,  Esq.,  of  Virginia,  also  visited  this 
locality  in  1822  and  described  the  fossil.  From  this  place  they 
passed  on  over  the  country  to  Mount  Joliet,  and  Schoolcraft  wrote 
the  description  of  this  Mound,  which  we  quoted  in  our  sketch  of 
the  Mound. 

BIG  FOOT. 

But  we  must  return  from  this  digression.  One  of  the  most 
interesting  reminiscences  of  the  early  Chicago  is  related  in  the 
"  Fergus  series,"  by  Col.  Gurdon  S.  Hubbard,  of  Chicago,  in 
which  he  narrates  the  visit  of  Shabbonee,  in  company  with  Saug- 
a-nash  to  the  village  of  the  Chief,  Big  Foot,  at  Big  Foot  (Geneva) 
Lake.  Shabbonee  had  reached  Chicago  after  his  interview  with 
Cass  before  him,  and  was  the  guest  of  his  friend  Caldwell,  On 
learning  the  news  brought  by  Gov.  Cass,  Col.  Hubbard  suggested 
to  Caldwell  and  Shabbonee  that  they  should  visit  Big  Foot  and 
endeavor  to  learn  whether  he  intended  to  join  the  hostiles. 
From  some  circumstances  Col.  Hubbard  was  led  to  apprehend 
that  this  Chief  was  unfriendly  to  the  whites.  Accordingly 
Shabbonee  and  Caldwell  at  once  set  out  on  this  mission.  When 
they  arrived  in  the  vicinity  of  Big  Foot  village  Caldwell  con- 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago.  13 

cealed  himself  in  §ome  thick^  timber,  while  Shabbonee  entered 
the  village.  Sbabbonee  was  at  once  made  a  prisoner  and  charged 
with  being  a  spy.  This  made  it  evident  that  Big  Foot  was  an 
enemy  to  the  whites,  although  he  had  but  lately  returned  from 
receiving  his  payment  from  the  United  States  at  Chicago.  The 
situation  of  Shabbonee  was  critical.  But  he  was  equal  to  the 
occasion.  He  affected  great  astonishment  and  indignation  at  his 
arrest,  and  the  suspicions  against  him;  and  claimed  that  he  had 
come  to  consult  with  Big  Foot  in  reference  to  joining  the  Winne- 
bagoes.  He  avowed  his  conviction  that  the  Winuebagoes  were 
foolish  and  could  not  succeed  in  their  schemes,  and  at  the  same 
time  promised  that  if  allowed  to  return  to  his  people  he  would 
submit  the  matter  to  them,  and  if  they  consented  he  would  join 
Big  Foot.  After  talking  all  night  Shabbonee  was  allowed  to 
depart,  accompanied  by  one  of  Big  Foot's  braves,  to  visit  Shab- 
bonee's  village.  As  they  passed  the  spot  where  Caldwell  was 
concealed  Shabbonee  managed,  by  talking  loudly  to  his  compan- 
ion, to  convey  to  Caldwell  sufficient  information  to  guide  him. 

He  understood  at  once  that  he  must  not  be  seen,  and  he 
returned  to  Chicago  alone  by  another  route.  Shabbonee  con- 
trived, with  consummate  skill,  to  warn  the  people  of  Chicago  of 
Big  Foot's  disposition,  while  his  companion  waited  in  conceal- 
ment, and  then  the  two  went  ©n  to  Shabbonee's  village,  where  his 
people  were  called  together,  and  after  much  talk  decided  not  to 
aid  the  hostiles. 

ALAEM  AT  CHICAGO.      COL.  HUBBARD  TO  THE  RESCUE. 

The  news  that  Shabbonee  brought  to  Chicago  of  course 
increased  the  apprehensions  of  the  citizens,  and  a  consultation  was 
speedily  held  as  to  the  best  measures  in  the  emergency.  It  was 
decided  that  Col.  Hubbard  should  at  once  start  for  Danville  for 
aid  to  defend  the  post,  although  his  prpseuce  seemed  equally  neces- 
sary at  Chicago,  where  most  of  the  men  were  in  his  employ,  and  he 


i4  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago. 

had  great  influence  with  the  Indians.  But  he  was  the  only  one  well 
acquainted  with  the  route  and  with  all  the  settlers  about  Danville. 
He  accordingly  set  out  at  once  and  made  the  journey  with  all 
possible  speed,  swimming  the  swollen  rivers  and  riding  all  night. 
He  reached  the  house  of  a  Mr.  Spencer,  near  Danville,  the  next 
day  at  noon,  completely  used  up.  Mr.  Spencer  immediately 
warned  out  the  scattered  settlers,  appointing  a  rendezvous  at 
Danville.  The  day  following  a  company  of  100  men,  under  an 
old  frontier  fighter  named  Morgan,  was  organized,  and  started 
immediately  to  the  relief  of  Chicago,  Col.  Hubbard  returning 
with  them.  Although  compelled  to  swim  the  streams  and  wade 
the  sloughs,  they  pushed  on,  and  reached  Fort  Dearborn  the 
seventh  day  after  Mr.  Hubbard  had  left  it,  to  the  great  joy  of 
the  people.  A  re- organization  was  had,  and  a  company,  160 
strong,  under  Morgan,  was  now  ready  for  Big  Foot  and  all  the 
Winnebagos. 

Fortunately,  at  the  end  of  thirty  days,  news  came  of  the 
defeat  of  the  Winnebagos,  and  of  their  forming  a  treaty  of  peace 
with  the  commanding  officer  of  the  force  that  Gov.  Cass  had 
dispatched  by  river  from  St.  Louis.  And  so  the  Winnebago 
scare  was  at  an  end. 

Shabbonee's  course  in  thus  counselling  peace  and  favoring 
the  whites  gained  for  him  the  appellation  of  White  Man's  Friend. 
It  was  bestowed  upon  him  in  contempt  by  the  hostiles,  but  it 
became  his  proudest  title. 

FATHER    WALKER. 

In  1823  that  self-denying,  earnest  pioneer  and  preacher, 
Jesse  Walker,  received  the  appointment  of  missionary  to  the 
Indians  from  the  Illinois  conference  of  the  Methodist  Church.  In 
pursuance  of  his  duty  as  such  missionary  he  came  to  Ottawa, 
where  he  is  said  to  have  built  the  first  log  cabin  on  the  site  of  the 
present  city  in  1824. 


ftoi  them  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago.  15 

More  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  had  elapsed  since  the 
Jesuit  father,  Marquette,  had  established  his  mission  of  the 
•'  Immaculate  Conception,"  a  few  miles  below  that  point.  French 
sovereignty  had  been  superseded  by  English,  and  the  English 
again  by  American.  Another  race  of  Indians,  too,  at  this  time, 
held  possession  of  Northern  Illinois.  The  Illini,  in  the  time  of 
Marquette,  so  proud  and  numerous,  had  been  conquered  and 
almost  annihilated  by  the  combined  Pottawatamie  and  Ottawa 
tribes,  and  there  was  hardly  a  vestige  of  the  once  flourishing  and 
populous  town  of  La  Vantam,  or  of  the  Kas-kas-kia  mission. 
The  only  traces  of  French  enterprise  or  of  Jesuit  zeal  were  to  be 
found  in  tradition  and  history.  All  Northern  Illinois  was  still 
a  part  of  the  county  of  Fulton,  and  only  here  and  there  along 
the  streams  had  a  daring  pioneer  venture  to  build  his  cabin.  The 
Indians  were  still  in  almost  undisputed  possession  and  looked 
upon  a  white  man  as  an  intruder,  unless  he  came  to  buy  their 
furs  and  peltries,  and  to  supply  them  with  trinkets,  blankets, 
powder  and  hatchets,  and  the  still  more  deadly  "good-na-tosh."* 

Elder  Walker  was,  at  the  first,  somewhat  disheartened  by  hia 
cold  welcome.  The  Indians  did  not  seem  disposed  to  be  friendly. 
One  morning,  while  "spreading  out  his  wants  and  fears  before 
the  Lord,"  he  was  surprised  by  a  visit  from  a  tall,  finely-formed 
Indian,  equipped  with  the  weapons  of  a  brave,  and  wearing  the 
insignia  of  a  chief,  and  whose  countenance  bore  a  kindly 
expression,  and  who  introduced  himself  with  the  laconic  words  : 
"  Me  Shabbonee,"  at  the  same  time  giving  the  Elder  a  hearty 
hand-shake. 

The  chief  could  speak  but  little  English  and  the  Elder  was 
equally  ignorant  of  Pottawatamie,  so  that  there  could  be  little 
intelligent  conversation  between  them.  But  Elder  Walker  was 
at  no  loss  to  understand  that  he  had  at  last  met  a  friend,  and  that 
his  prayers  were  already  answered;  and,  if  he  had  any  lingering 

*  Whisky. 


i6  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago. 

doubts  as  to  the  friendly  intentions  of  his  visitor,  they  were  soon 
completely  removed.  Shabbonee  left  the  cabin  of  the  Elder, 
giving  him  to  understand  that  he  would  return.  Tke  camp  of  the 
Chief  was  about  a  mile  distant,  and  he  soon  reappeared,  bearing 
upon  his  shoulders  a  quarter  of  venison  and  a  wild  turkey,  which 
he  laid  at  his  feet.  It  was  a  welcome  addition  to  the  Elder's 
lean  larder.  He  was  also  accompanied  by  a  half-breed  who  could 
speak  English,  and  by  whose  help  the  Elder  made 
known  his  objects  and  wishes.  Shabbonee  expressed  his 
disposition  to  aid  him. 

MISSION  ESTABLISHED   ON  THE  FOX. 

Accordingly  next  day.  under  the  guidance  of  Shabbonee 
and  George  Forqua  (the  interpreter),  the  Elder  explored 
the  country  along  the  Fox  and  Illinois  rivers,  and  located 
his  mission  on  a  little  creek  that  empties  into  the  Fox, 
and  which  received  the  name  of  Mission  Creek.  The  spot 
selected  was  on  Sec.  15  of  T.  35,  R.  5,  to  which  also  the  name  of 
Mission  Township  was  subsequently  given.  Here  the  earnest 
missionary  pioneer  soon  had  a  flourishing  mission,  consisting  of  a 
school  house,  a  chapel,  and  two  or  three  dwellings  occupied  by  the 
Elder  and  his  assistants.  Here  the  mission  flourished  for  a  few 
years,  having  a  large  school  of  Indian  children,  and  a  large 
congregation  of  native  worshipers  on  the  Sabbath,  Many 
professed  conversion  and  were  baptised.  Shabbonee,  although 
heartily  seconding  Walker's  efforts  for  the  elevation  of  his  people, 
never  became  an  avowed  convert.  In  1830  the  chapel  was 
burned  down  and  the  mission  was  removed  to  the  vicinity  of 
Plainfield,  where  he  had  already  started  a  branch.  James 
Walker,  his  son-in-law,  and  one  of  his  assistants,  had  preceded 
ihim,  and  built  Walker's  mills,  famous  in  the  early  days  of  Will 
«ouhty. 

From  Father  Walker's  advent  to  La  Salle  county  up  to  the 
spring  of  1832,  settlers  "squatted  "  along  the  Fox,  the  Illinois,  • 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago.  17 

the  Du  Page,  and  their  tributaries,  and  at  a  few  points  along  the 
Mississippi.  But  Northern  Illinois  was  still  comparatively  a 
wilderness.  But  it  was  a  beautiful  wilderness,  consisting  largely 
of  meadow-like,  flower-decked  prairies,  with  heavy  forests 
skirting  the  streams,  and  forming  here  and  there  island  groves, 
breaking  in  upon  the  ocean-like  monotony  of  the  sea  of  verdure 
The  country  looked  as  if  it  had  been  cultivated  in  some  far  past, 
so  far,  that  the  people  and  their  dwellings,  and  all  vestiges  of 
their  occupation  had  perished.  The  region  had  only  been 
partly  surveyed,  and  only  some  canal  land  had  been  offered  for 
sale.  There  were  no  roads,  and  the  only  pathways  were  the 
Indian  trails.  To  this  statement  we  must  make  one  exception. 
As  early  as  1822  the  lead  mines  in  the  vicinity  of  Galena  had 
begun  to  be  worked  by  white  men  under  the  protection  of  troopa 
sent  there  by  the  war  department,  and  in  1825  and  1826  there 
was  a  great  rush  of  adventurers  thither,  not  only  from  Southern 
Illinois,  but  from  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  ;  not  for  permanent 
settlement  but  with  the  expectation  of  speedily  realizing  a  fortune, 
and  then  returning  to  their  homes.  Many  went  thither  in  the 
spring  and  returned  in  the  fall.  Hence  they  received  the  name 
of  suckers  as  their  migrations  synchronized  with  the  movements 
of  that  well-known  fish.  The  name  was  ultimately  fastened 
exclusively  upon  the  people  of  our  State.  This  emigration  to 
the  lead  mines  had  led  to  the  opening,  in  1827,  of  the  only  road 
in  Northern  Illinois,  from  Peoria  to  Galena.  Along  this  road, 
at  long  intervals,  pioneers  had  located  for  the  purpose  of  keeping 
tavern  in  the  rude  style  of  the  frontier,  and  soon  a  stage  route 
was  established  between  these  two  points. 

The  most  important  trail  was  that  known  as  the  Sac  trail, 
from  Rock  Island  to  Detroit.  This  trail  was  the  only  guide  for 
emigrants  west  of  Niles,  when  the  writer  came  to  Joliet  in  1834. 

Another  important  trail  was  that  from  Chicago  to  Danville, 


18  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago. 

which  came  to  be  called  Hnbbard's  trail,  from  the  fact  that 
Gurdon  S.  Hubbard  and  the  men  in  his  employ  as  the  agent  of 
the  American  Fur  Company,  passed  back  and  forth  upon  it.  He 
had  a  trading  post  at  the  crossing  of  the  Iroquois.  It  was  over 
this  trail,  under  the  guidance  of  Col,  Hubbard,  the  company  of 
volunteers  went  to  the  relief  of  Chicago  iti  1827,  as  we  have 
related,  and  from  his  stores  at  this  trading  post  Colonel  Hubbard 
supplied  the  deficiencies  of  the  company  in  arms,  ammunition  and 
rations.  These  supplies  had  been  brought  to  that  point  in 
batteaux  by  the  way  of  the  Des  Planes,  Kankakee  and  Iroquois 
rivers.  But  we  presume  that  the  citizens  of  Watseka  find  it 
much  cheaper  and  quicker  to  get  their  supplies  by  railroad. 
For  over  this  identical  trail  now  passes  the  Chicago  and  Danville, 
or  Eastern  Illinois  railroad,  and  just  across  the  river  from  the 
old  trading  post  is  the  pleasant  town  of  Watseka,*  the  county  seat 
of  Iroquois.  The  Indians  were  uatural  engineers,  and  the  first 
pioneers  good  judges  of  town  sites.  Col.  Hubbard  ought  to 
have  a  free  pass  over  that  railroad  during  his  remaining  days, 
which  we  hope  may  yet  be  many,  although  he  has  already  seen 
more  than  any  other  man  since  the  days  of  Methusaleh. 

Another  important  trail  ran  from  the  lead  mines  to  Big  Foot 
Lake,  and  thence  to  Chicago.  The  men  of  wealth  and  taste  now 
build  their  handsome  summer  houses  upon  the  shores  of  this 
beautiful  sheet  of  water,  but  fifty  years  ago  Big  Foot  and  his 
tribe  built  their  wigwams  along  its  slopes,  and  fished  in  its 
pellucid  waters.  Perhaps  the  savage  lifted  as  grateful  a  heart  to 
the  Great  Spirit  for  all  its  beauty  and  abundance,  as  does  his 
civilized  successor;  and  perhaps  he  was  as  happy  in  his  frail  and 
rude  lodge  as  his  successor,  who  employs  architects,  and  skilled 
artisans,  to  construct  and  adorn  his  palatial  mansion. 

*So  named  from  a  beautiful    Indian  maiden,   who  lived    thereabout  ; 
whose  interesting  story  we  leave  to  the  coming  Cooper. 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago.  19 

SETTLEMENTS   FIFTY   YEARS   AGO. 

» 

At  the  breaking  out  of  the  Black  Hawk  war,  fifty  year*  ago> 
the  largest  settlement,  except  at  Chicago,  north  of  the  Illinois 
<river,  was  on  Bureau  Creek,  where  there  were  about  thirty 
families.  A  few  other  settlers  had  located  on  the  river  at  Peru 
and  La  Salle,  and  a  considerable  number  at  Ottawa.  OB  Indian 
Creek,  a  tributary  of  the  Fox,  near  what  is  now  known  as 
Munson,  in  the  town  of  Freedom,  La  Salle  county,  there  was  a 
settlement  known  as  Davis  settlement  consisting  of  eight  or  ten 
families.  This  settlement  was  soon  to  have  a  fearful  history. 
At  a  place  then  known  as  Holdeman's  grove,  near  Newark, 
Kendall  county,  there  were  five  or  six  families.  At  Walker's 
Grove,  or  Plainfield,  there  were  twelve  or  fifteen  families. 
Along  the  two  branches  of  the  Du  Page,  partly  in  this  county 
and  partly  in  Du  Page,  there  were  about  twenty  families.  In 
Yankee  settlement  which  embraced  part  of  the  towns  of  Homer, 
Lockport  and  New  Lenox,  there  were  twenty  or  twenty- five 
families.  Along  the  Hickory  in  the  town  of  New  Lenox, 
including  the  Zarley  settlement  in  this  township,  there  were 
probably  twenty  families  more,  and  at  Reed's  and  Jackson  Grove 
there  were  six  or  eight  more. 

The  humble  cabins  of  these  pioneers  were,  at  a  little  distance, 
hardly  distinguishable  from  the  groves  in  whose  shelter  they  were 
built,  and  their  improvements  had  barely  fretted  the  edges  of  the 
prairies  that  stretched  in  illimitable  beauty  before  them. 

NATIVE   OCCUPANTS. 

But  these  pioneers  were  not  the  only  inhabitants  of  Northern 
Illinois  at  this  time.  The  country  between  the  Wabash  and 
Rock  river,  and  from  Peoria  Lake  to  Wisconsin  Territory,  was  in 
the  partial  possession  of,  and  claimed  by  the  Pottawatamie  tribe 


20  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago. 

of  Indians.     It  is    impossible   to   state    definitely  their  number, 
but   including   the   remnants   of  the  Ottawas   that  had    become 
absorbed  by    them,  they    probably  numbered  not   far  from   six 
thousand    souls.     They    were    divided    into    many  villages   or 
sub-tribes,  each    having  its   patriarchal  sheik    or  chief,   and  all 
rendering  a  not    very   clearly    defined    allegiance  to  a  head  chief. 
All  were  as  nomadic  in  their  habits   as    the    Arab,  although  they 
had  attached  themselves  to  particular  localities  which  they  claimed 
as  specially   their  own,  and  to   which  they  returned    with  some 
regularity.     Their  dwellings  could  be  taken  down,  loaded  on  their 
ponies  and  squaws,  and  set  up  in  a    oew  spot   almost  as  easily  as 
the  Arab's  tent.     These  changes  were  as  frequent  as  the  necessities 
of  hunting,  trapping  and  fishing,  or    the    manufacture   of  sugar, 
etc.,  seemed  to  require.     The   selling  of  their   furs   and  peltries, 
buying    the    articles    they    needed    or    fancied    of  the  traders, 
attending  their  festivals  and   war  dances,  councils   and  payments, 
etc.,  etc.,   also     required    frequent    changes    of    location.     They 
pitched    their   wigwams   in    the    edge  of  groves  and  along   the 
streams,   at    such    points    as    best    subserved     the  necessities  of 
their  mode  of  life,    while   at  the    same  time    they    seemed     to 
have  been  more  or  less  influenced  by  the  beautiful  and  picturesque, 
and,  wandering   as    were    their   habits   they   exhibited  a   strong 
attachment  to  the  localities  with  which  they    had  grown  familiar. 
A  strange  people.     They  have  now    passed  away  frem    these 

scenes. 

"  Like  the  fallen  leaves  those  forest  tribes  have  fled. 
Deep  'neath  the  turf  the  rusted  weapon  lies." 

A  remnant  of  perhaps  1,500  are  now  in  the  Kansas  river 
valley  and  in  the  Indian  Territory,  And,  while  we  would  not 
excuse  individual  or  national  acts  of  injustice  toward  them,  or 
other  tribes,  and  while  we  cannot  refuse  a  sigh  of  pity  over  their 
sad  fate,  yet  one  can  hardly  regret  that  these  few  thousand  savages, 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago.  21 

— themselves  usurpers — who  fifty  years  ago  roamed  and  hunted 
over  Northern  Illinois,  have  been  compelled  to  make  room  for 
the  million  or  more  of  civilized  and  enterprising  white  men  that 
have  taken  their  places.  Whether  we  call  it  manifest  destiuy,  the 
survival  ot  the  fittest,  or  the  working  out  of  a  divine  and 
beneficent  purpose  —(may  it  not  be  all  these?) — one  can  hardly 
mourn  over  the  fact  that  the  frail  and  rude  lodges  which  were 
scattered  up  and  down  the  streams  fifty  years  ago,  have  given 
place  to  the  thousands  of  tasteful  mansions,  the  churches  and 
school  houses,  the  towns  and  cities,  that  now  adorn  every  section 
of  the  landscape;  and  that  the  Indian  trail  and  canoe  have  been 
succeeded  by  the  steamers,  and  canal  boats,  and  the  swift-flying 
railway  trains. 

OUR  PURPOSE. 

It  is  not  our  design  in  this  historical  rehash  to  give  a 
narrative  of  the  Black  Hawk  war  in  its  general  aspects,  or  of  the 
circumstances  which  preceded  it. 

These  are  all  amply  described  and  related  in  Ford's  History 
of  Illinois  and  other  State  histories.  Compared  with  our  later 
war  experiences,  it  was  a  very  small  affair.  From  first  to  last 
the  forces  of  the  government,  including  the  Wisconsin  volunteers, 
the  friendly  Indians,  and  the  six  artillery  companies,  sent  forward 
under  Gen.  Scott  (which  took  no  part  in  the  campaign),  did  not 
amount  in  all  to  much  over  6,000  men.  Compared  with  the 
great  battles  of  the  late  war,  its  heaviest  encounters  were  mere 
skirmishes.  On  the  part  of  the  Indians,  there  were  only  a  few 
hundred  at  any  time  mustered  under  Black  Hawk,*  so  that  the 
forces  brought  into  the  field  on  the  part  of  the  government,  would 
seem  needlessly  large.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  there 
was  reason  to  fear  that  other  tribes  might  join  Black  Hawk, 
while  there  was  a  large  territory  to  be  protected.  The 

*  The  best  estimate  we  have  seen  places  their  number  at  650. 


22  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Hears  Ago. 

Winnebagoes  and  Pottawattamies  were  not  regarded  as  being 
entirely  reliable  ia  their  professed  friendship.  It  was  man- 
ifestly good  policy  to  make  such  a  demonstration  as  would 
convince  the  hostile^  of  the  futility  of  their  designs.  The  advice 
of  Polonius  to  Laertes  is  equally  good  for  nations : 

"  Beware 

Of  entrance  to  a  quarrel ;  but  being  in, 
Bear  it  that  the  opposed  may  beware  of  thee." 

ROVING   HOSTILB8. 

Besides  the  force  under  Black  Hawk,  there  were  bands  of 
redskins  roving  about  the  country  committing  all  those  outrages 
in  which  the  savage  finds  delight.  Probably  during  the  months 
of  May  and  June,  before  the  white  forces  reached  the  scene,  there 
were  not  less  than  fifty  of  the  settlers  brutally  murdered.  From 
Chicago  to  Galena,  and  from  the  Illinois  to  the  Wisconsin 
rivers,  these  bands  ecoured  the  country,  carrying  terror  into  every 
cabin. 

THE   WAR    IN    BRIEF. 

The  first  encounter  between  Black  Hawk's  force  and  the 
whites  was  on  the  Rock  river,  near  a  stream  which  empties  into 
it,  and  called  afterwards  Stillman's  run,  in  honor  of  the  en- 
gagement. The  men  engaged  were  raw  recruits,  who  had  at  their 
own  request  been  sent  forward  under  Major  Stillman  to  spy  out 
the  whereabouts  of  the  enemy.  They  found  them,  May  12th,  in 
greater  numbers  than  they  expected,  and  the  result  did  not  confer 
much  glory  on  the  volunteers.  Had  it  occurred  in  the  later  years 
it  would  have  been  called  a  ske  dad-die.  The  next  encounter  was 
at  Kellogg's  grove,  where  the  whites,  under  Major  Dement  were 
assaulted  by  Black  Hawk's  band,  and  the  latter  were  repulsed  with 
a  loss  of  ten  or  fifteen  of  their  number  killed,  while  the  loss  of 
•whites  was  five  killed  and  three  wounded. 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  iLears  Ago.  23 

The  decisive  engagements  were  fought  in  Wisconsin,  then  a 
part  of  the  Territory  of  Michigan,  whither  the  Indians  had  fled. 
They  were  pursued  over  the  ground  between  the  four  lakes,  where 
the  city  of  Madison  is  now  located,  and  one  Indian  is  said  to  have 
been  killed  on  the  very  epot  where  the  capitol  is  built.  Over  this 
scene  of  beauty,  (then  and  now),  they  were  pursued  and  overtaken 
at  the  bluffs  of  the  Wisconsin  about  five  o'clock  of  the  afternoon 
of  the  21st  of  July,  and  defeated  with  great  loss.  Escaping  dur- 
ing the  night  across  the  river;  the  surviving  Indians  made  for  the 
Mississippi,  hoping  to  get  upon  the  western  side.  But  before  they 
could  accomplish  their  purpose  they  were  overtaken,  and  the  de- 
cisive battle  of  the  war — the  last  encounter  with  hostile  Indians 
on  this  side  of  the  Mississippi  was  fought,  August  2d,  near  the 
mouth  of  Bad  Ax  river. 

According  to  Governor  Ford's  history,  the  best  fighting  on 
the  21st  of  July,  had  been  done  by  the  brigade  of  militia  under 
Colonel  Henry,  and  lest  they  might  win  further  honors  they  were 
put  in  the  rear  on  the  pursuit.  The  result  of  this  arrangement 
was,  that  General  Atkinson  with  the  main  army  was  decoyed,  by 
a  small  force  of  Indians,  past  the  place  where  their  main  body 
was  left  in  the  rear,  without  orders.  He  discovered  the  mistake 
of  General  Atkinson,  and  the  main  trail  of  the  Indians  going 
down  to  the  river,  which  he  followed,  and  coming  upon  them  at- 
tacked at  once,  defeating  them,  before  the  commanding  General, 
having  heard  the  firing,  and  discovered  his  mistake,  could  return 
with  the  main  army. 

Black  Hawk,  with  about  twenty  men,  succeeded  in  getting 
away,  but  was  captured  by  some  of  his  treacherous  Winnebago 
friends  at  the  Dalles  of  the  Wisconsin  and  by  them  handed  over 
to  our  army. 


24  ftoiihern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago, 

NOTABLES   IN   THE   WAR. 

Quite  a  number  of  persons  played  some  part  in  the  Black 
Hawk  war  whose  names  have  since  become  famous. 

Our  own,  well  beloved  Lincoln  enlisted  at  the  first  call  made 
by  Governor  Reynolds,  and  was  chosen  captain  of  a  volunteer 
company,  and  when  the  first  levy  was  disbanded,  he  re-enlisted  as 
a  private  in  the  company  of  Captain  lies,  and  served  to  the  end 
of  the  war. 

He  was  mustered  in  at  Dixon,  where  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Zachary  Taylor  was  in  command  with  two  companies  of  regulars, 
by  Lieutenant  Robert  Anderson,  the  hero  of  Fort  Sumter,  serving 
as  Assistant  Inspector  General.  At  the  same  time  there  was  at 
Dixou  a  young  Lieutenant  of  the  name  of  Jefferson  Davis.  Jt 
would  be  hard  to  find  in  all  history  such  a  meeting  of  persons, 
who  were  to  play  so  conspicuous  a  part  in  their  country's  history, 
and  yet  who  were  then  comparatively  unknown  and  altogether 
unconscious  of  what  the  future  had  in  store  for  them. 

The  time  came  when  the  green  youth  of  twenty-two,  the 
high  private  of  Captain  lies'  company,  out-ranked  them  all. 

Hon.  I.  N.  Arnold  tells  us  that  when  Major  Anderson,  after 
the  evacuation  of  Fort  Sumter,  called  to  pay  his  respects  to  Presi- 
dent Lincoln,  after  thanking  him  for  his  gallant  defense,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln asked  Major  Anderson  if  he  remembered  having  met  him 
before.  The  Major  replied  that  he  did  not.  "  My  memory  is 
better  than  yours,"  said  Lincoln,  "  you  mustered  me  into  the 
United  States  service,  as  a  high  private  of  the  Illinois  Volunteer 
at  Dixon's  Ferry  in  the  Black  Hawk  war." 

One  coincidence  relating  to  the  arch  traitor,  Davis,  is  worthy 
of  note.  After  the  surrender  of  Black  Hawk,  Davia  was  charged 
with  the  duty  of  delivering  him  at  Jefferson  Barracks.  The  fallen 
chief  was  confined  for  a  time  at  Fortress  Monroe,  where  Davis 
himself  was  afterwards  a  prisoner.  They  were  charged  nomi- 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago.  25 

nally  with  the  same  crime,  that  of  levying  war  against  the  United 
States.  But  of  how  much  deeper  dye  was  the  guilt  of  the  man 
who  had  been  educated  at  the  nation's  expense,  and  who  had  en- 
joyed its  blessings  and  its  honors,  and  sworn  allegiance  to  its  laws. 

General  Dodge,  afterwards  Governor  Dodge,  of  Wisconsin, 
took  an  active  part  in  the  war.  Also  General  Fry,  afterwards  our 
Canal  Commissioner. 

It  was  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  Black  Hawk  war  that 
Shabbonee  rendered  the  most  important  services  to  the  pioneer 
settlers  of  this  region. 

SHABBONEE   AND    BLACK    HAWK. 

Black  Hawk,  or  to  give  his  full  name  as  appended  to  the 
treaty  of  1816,  Muck-eta- me-che-ka-ka,  or  Black  Sparrow  Hawk, 
was  at  the  time  of  the  war,  an  old  man  of  72  years  of  age.  He 
had  been  a  warrior  from  his  youth,  and  always  bitterly  opposed 
to  the  whites,  especially  the  Americans.  He  was  one  of  Tecum- 
seh's  aids  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  never  gave  in  his  sub- 
mission to  the  United  States  Government,  although  he  signed 
his  X  to  the  treaty  of  1815-16,  which  confirmed  that  of  1804. 
He  had  crossed  the  Mississippi  in  1 831  with  his  warriors,  and 
committed  various  depredations  on  the  settlers  upon  the  land 
.about  the  mouth  of  Rock  river — his  old  home  —but  had  been 
met  by  such  vigorous  movements  on  the  part  of  Governor  Rey- 
nolds and  General  Gaines,  of  the  United  States  Army,  that  he  re- 
treated to  the  west  side,  and,  being  threatened  with  pursuit  by 
our  forces  he  submitted,  and  engaged  by  solemn  treaty  to  keep 
thereafter  upon  the  w,est  side.  But  in  February,  1832,  he  called 
'together  a  council  at  Indiantown,  of  Sac,  Fox,  Winnebago  and 
Pottawattamie  chiefs  and  head  men,  to  which  he  presented  his 
cause  and  his  grievances,  and  endeavored  to  get  them  to  form  an 
alliance  for  the  purpose  of  recovering  from  the  whites  the  terri- 
tory east  of  the  river,  where  had  been  for  so  many  years  their  vil- 
lages, and  their  hunting  grounds.  The  celebrated  chief,  known 


26  floi  them  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago. 

as  the  Prophet,  was  his  most  eloquent  backer,  an  earnest  advocate 
of  war.  Shabbonee  was  the  principal  advocate  of  peace.  He  was 
not  much  noted  for  oratory,  but  his  character  for  honesty  and  good 
sense  gave  him  great  influence.  He  could  also  in  a  quiet  way- 
present  his  own  views  ably,  and  show  the  weak  points  in  the  ar- 
gument of  his  opponent.  On  this  occasion  he  gave  his  voice  de- 
cidedly against  war,  urging  that  there  was  no  hope  of  success,, 
while  hostilities  on  their  part  would  only  make  their  condition 
more  hopeless  and  uncomfortable.  To  the  high  sounding  state- 
ment of  the  Prophet,  that  if  all  the  tribes  would  unite,  they 
could  muster  a  force  which  "  would  be  in  numbers  like  the  trees 
of  the  forest  in  which  they  had  gathered."  Shabbonee  replied^ 
"  True,  we  should  be  like  these  trees  in  number,  but  our  enemies 
would  be  in  numbers  as  the  leaves  upon  these  trees."  It  was  no 
doubt  the  decided  stand  taken  by  Shabbonee  that  defeated  the 
scheme  of  Black  Hawk  and  the  Prophet.  Black  Hawk,  when  a 
prisoner  at  Jefferson  Barracks,  said  that  but  for  him  the  Potta- 
wattamie  nation  would  have  joined  him. 

Notwithstanding  his  failure  to  secure  such  an  alliance  as  he 
desired,  Black  Hawk,  as  we  have  related,  crossed  the  Mississippi 
in  the  spring  of  1832  with  the  disaffected  and  turbulent  spirits  of 
the  Sac  and  Fox  nations,  to  reassert  their  right  to  the  territory 
lying  along  Rock  river,  which  had  been  their  favorite  home,  and 
where  a  few  miles  above  its  mouth  had  been  their  chief  town.  He 
no  doubt  believed  that  his  appearance  on  the  war  path  would 
lead  many,  if  not  all  the  braves  of  the  Pottawattamie  and  Winne- 
bago  tribes,  to  join  him. 

When  Shabbonee  heard  that  Black  Hawk  and  his  band  of 
hostiles  had  crossed  the  river,  he  was  encamped  with  his  entire 
band  on  the  Bureau,  not  far  from  the  present  city  of  Princeton. 
They  had  been  engaged  in  the  business  of  making  their  supply  of 
maple  sugar,  in  the  manufacture  of  which  the  Indians  are  experts. 
He  immediately  started  upon  a  tour  among  the  other  villages  to 
prevent  them  from  joining  Black  Hawk.  For  two  weeks  he  was 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Hears  Ago.  27 

engaged  in  this  mission,  visiting  among  other  places  Ottawa  and 
Chicago.  At  the  latter  place  he  arranged  with  Che-ehe-pin-que 
(Robinson)  and  Saug-a-nash  (Galdwell)  for  a  council  to  beheld 
the  following  week,  at  a  village  on  the  Des  Planes,  where  is  now 
the  suburb  of  River  Side,  for  the  purpose  of  agreeing  upon  a 
peace  policy.  The  council  was  held,  and  such  a  policy  was  agreed 
upon,  with  little  dissent. 

Black  Hawk  made  one  more  personal  application  to  hia  old 
comrade,  and  to  Waubansie,  to  induce  them  to  join  him,  but  with- 
out success,  and  Shabbonee  peremptorily  refused  to  attend  a  coun- 
cil which  Black  Hawk  had  called,  advising  him  to  return  at  once 
to  the  west  side  of  the  Mississippi. 

But  although  Shabbouee,  and  through  his  influence  mainly, 
Waubansie  and  other  chiefs,  with  their  bands,  refused  to  aid  Black 
Hawk,  there  were  some  of  the  Pottawattamies  from  various  vil- 
lages, some  even  from  Shabbouee's,  that  took  sides  with  Black 
Hawk,  and  were  the  principal  perpetrators  of  the  outrages  which 
soon  followed. 

SHABBONEE    GIVES    WARNING. 

When  the  news  of  Black  Hawk's  success  in  that  first  encoun- 
ter at  Stillman's  Run  reached  Shabbonee,  he  knew  that  hostile 
bands,  encouraged  by  success,  would  soon  be  ravaging  about  the 
country,  committing  murder  and  every  atrocity.  He  at  once  sent 
his  son  Pypegee,  and  his  nephew  Pyps,  to  Fox  river  and  Holde- 
man's  to  warn  the  settlers  of  their  danger,  while  he  himself  went 
on  the  same  errand  to  Bureau  and  Indian  creek,  all  starting  be- 
fore daylight  on  the  15th  of  May. 

It  was  the  beautiful  spring  season,  beautiful  always  and  ev- 
erywhere, but  especially  beautiful  then  in  this  region,  still  in  its 
pristine  glory,  as  if  fresh  from  the  Creator's  hand.  The  streams 
were  mostly  lined  with  timber,  which  frequently  jutted  out  like 
capes  into  the  prairie,  and  also  here  and  there  formed  detached 


28  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago. 

islands;  all  now  in  fullest,  greenest  leafage.  In  the  edges  of  these 
groves  were  frequent  clusters  of  thorn  and  crab  apple  trees,  and  of 
the  plum  and  wild  cherry,  now  in  full  bloom,  loading  the  air  with 
fragrance,  while  the  red  bud  or  Judas  tree  and  other  flowering 
shrubs  gave  the  grace  of  color  to  the  landscape.  The  hum  of 
bees,  and  the  song  of  the  birds,  added  the  charm  of  music  to  the 
scene,  and  the  unbroken  prairie  stretched  out  in  seas  of  verdure 
and  color,  filling  the  eye  and  heart  with  delight. 

The  hardy  pioneers  whose  cabins  were  scattered  along  the 
edges  of  these  groves  on  the  Bureau,  the  Illinois,  the  Fox,  the 
DuPage  and  the  Des  Planes,  and  their  affluents,  were  busy  plow- 
ing, sowing  and  planting,  rejoicing  in  the  fertility  and  beauty  of 
the  spots  which  they  had  selected  for  their  future  homes. 

Over  these  peaceful  scenes  of  almost  paradisaical  beauty, 
came  suddenly,  the  startling  news  of  savage  warfare.  Shabbonee 
and  his  aide  rode  swiftly  up  and  down  the  streams  and  groves 
giving  friendly  warning  of  the  impending  danger.  Leaving  their 
plows  standing  in  the  furrows,  and  their  cabins  with  whatever  of 
goods  and  comforts  they  contained,  the  settlers  hastened  to  the 
nearest  places  of  refuge. 

GEETY   AND  HIS   BAND   OF   DEVILS. 

The  warning  had  come  none  too  soon.  A  half- breed  of  the 
name  of  Girty,  who  seems  to  have  united  in  himself  all  the  bad 
qualities  of  the  two  races  whose  blood  coursed  through  his  veins, 
had  left  the  camp  of  Black  Hawk,  and  with  a  band  of  guerrillas 
about  seventy  in  number,  which  was  largely  composed  of  dis- 
gruntled Pottawattamies,  coursed  through  the  Bureau  and  Fox 
river  settlements,  searching  for  victims  on  whom  to  glut  their 
savage  cruelty.  They  found  that  the  settlers  had  fled. 

On  arriving  at  Shabbonee's  Grove,  and  learning  that  he  and 
his  son  and  nephew  had  gone  to  warn  the  settlers  of  their  danger, 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago.  29 

they  were  greatly  enraged,  and    denounced  Shabbonee  as  a  trai- 
tor, swearing  vengeance  upon  him. 

FIRST   VICTIMS — JAMES    SAMPLE   AND   WIPE. 

Near  the  old  Sac  village,  at  the  mouth  of  Rock  river,  a 
young  man  by  the  name  of  James  Sample  had  made  a  claim  in 
the  fall  of  1831.  He  had  just  married  a  beautiful  girl  by  the 
name  of  Lucy  May,  He  was  a  local  preacher  of  the  Methodist 
church,  and  had  for  two  years  preached  occasionally  at  the  dif- 
ferent settlements  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Illinois  river.  Hearing  of 
the  crossing  of  Black  Hawk  and  his  band,  he  took  refuge  with 
the  other  settlers  on  the  island  where  there  was  a  fort.  After 
remaining  there  for  a  few  weeks  he  concluded  to  go  with  his  wife 
to  Hennepin,  where  their  friends  lived.  As  Black  Hawk  and  his 
band  were  supposed  to  be  between  the  Rock  river  and  the  Mis- 
sissippi, he  thought  the  trip  could  be  made  with  safety,  although 
the  distance  was  about  seventy-five  miles.  Accordingly  they  were 
ferried  across  the  river,  and  the  young  couple,  well  mounted, 
started  out  on  a  beautiful  morning  about  the  middle  of  May, 
hoping  to  reach  the  Bureau  settlement  by  night,  a  distance  of  sixty 
miles  without  an  inhabitant.  Their  only  guide  was  the  Sac  trail. 
On  the  west  side  of  the  Bureau  was  a  settler's  cabin  where  they 
hoped  to  pass  the  night.  Their  movements  after  leaving  Rock 
Island  can  only  be  inferred  from  well  known  circumstances,  until 
their  fatal  encounter  with  Girty's  band,  and  the  result  of  that  en- 
counter was  related  several  years  after  by  members  of  that  band. 
For  a  long  time  their  fate  was  left  to  conjecture.  It  is  known 
that  on  arriving  at  the  house  of  the  settler  to  whom  we  have  re- 
ferred, and  whose  name  was  Henry  Tkoraas,  they  found  the  house 
deserted,  and  all  the  doors  and  windows  barricaded  as  the  family 
had  fled  at  the  alarm  given  by  Shabbonee's  messengers.  About 
six  miles  further  east  was  another  settler  of  the  name  of  Smith, 


30  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  lears  Ago. 

to  whose  cabin  they  would  naturally  go.  But  this  was  on  the  east 
side  of  the  main  Bureau  creek,  which  at  the  time  was  very  high 
and  unsafe  to  cross  in  the  darkness,  which  by  this  time  would 
have  shut  down  upon  them,  and  they  must  have  passed  the  night 
in  the  grove,  and  in  the  morning  crossed  the  creek  by  swimming 
their  horses.  On  arriving  at  Smith's  they  would  be  again  disap- 
pointed on  finding  the  cabin  empty,  and  signs  of  a  hasty  flight  of 
the  inmates.  Tired  and  hungry,  and  still  wet  from  crossing  the 
creek,  the  signs  of  the  sudden  flight  of  the  settlers,  which  they 
could  only  attribute  to  fear  of  hostile  Indians,  mast  then  have 
filled  their  hearts  with  alarm.  But  they  press  on.  A  mile  fur- 
ther would  bring  them  to  the  cabin  of  Elijah  Epperson,  on  the 
other  side  of  the  timber,  which  they  also  found  deserted.  With 
increasing  fears,  which  the  beautiful  prairie  stretching  out  before 
them,  and  the  songs  of  the  forest  angels  filling  the  balmy  morn- 
ing air  with  music,  could  not  dissipate,  they  urge  on  their  jaded 
horses,  when  suddenly  behind  them  they  hear  the  terrible  war- 
whoop,  and  looking  back,  see  some  twenty  Indians  pursuing  them 
at  full  speed.  As  they  urge  on  their  horses  they  are  saluted  with 
shots  from  the  pursuers'  rifles  and  the  deadly  tomahawk  flashes 
past  their  heads.  Both  are  slightly  wounded,  but  the  attack  puts 
new  life  into  their  jaded  horses,  and  they  soon  leave  the  ponies  of 
their  savage  pursuers  far  in  the  rear.  They  begin  to  have  strong 
hopes  of  escape,  when,  in  crossing  a  slough,  the  horse  of  Mrs. 
Sample  gets  mired  and  falls,  throwing  her  off.  Mr.  Sample  could 
still  have  made  his  escape  had  he  been  selfish  enough  to  leave  bis 
beloved  Lucy  to  her  fate.  But  all  the  chivalry — all  the  manhood 
within  him — forbids  this.  While  assisting  his  wife  to  remount, 
the  devils  incarnate  come  up  and  surround  them,  with  terrific,  ex- 
ultant yells.  Sample,  very  inconsiderately,  drew  a  pistol  and 
shot  one  of  the  gang  dead.  The  victims  are  quickly  bound  to 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago.  3* 

their  horses  and  taken  back  to  the  camp  of  the  Indians,  about  a 
mile  southeast  of  Epperson's. 

A  council  was  then  held,  and  the  fate  of  the  hapless  prison- 
ers was  soon  fixed.  In  revenge  for  the  killing  of  their  comrade 
they  determined  that  they  should  be  burned  at  the  stake.  Sample 
knew  Girty,  the  leader  of  the  band,  and  offered  him  everything 
he  possessed  as  a  ransom  for  himself  and  wife.  But  nothing  but 
revenge  in  the  crudest  form  could  satisfy  his  savage  nature. 

We  do  not  care  to  dwell  upon  the  details  of  this  tragedy  of 
fifty  years  ago.  They  are  minutely  related  in  Matson's  Life  of 
Shabbonee.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  they  were  bound  to  a  tree,  and 
after  suffering  every  indignity  and  every  torture  which  savage  in- 
genuity could  devise,  they  were  burned  while  their  triumphant 
foes  danced  naked  around  the  scene. 

Early  settlers  afterwards  noticed  a  burr  oak  standing  a  little 
out  from  the  grove  whose  trunk  was  charred  by  fire,  and  around 
it  they  found  human  bones  bleaching  in  the  air,  and  in  a  ravine 
near  by  a  skull.  But  not  until  many  years  after  was  it  known  that 
these  were  the  remains  in  part  of  the  youthful  pair  who  perished 
among  the  first  victims  of  the  Black  Hawk  war.  Within  sight 
of  this  spot,  where  this  tragedy  was  enacted,  now  lies  in  quiet, 
peaceful  beauty,  the  city  of  Princeton,  with  its  schools  and 
churches,  and  its  3,500  inhabitants,  the  shire  town  of  a  county 
containing  33,000  souls. 

INDIAN    CREEK    MASSACRE. 

But  the  cruel  murder  of  James  Sample  and  lovely  bride 
served  only  to  whet  the  appetite  of  the  savage  band  for  blood. 
On  Indian  creek,  in  what  is  now  the  town  of  Freedom,  LaSalle 
county,  about  thirty  miles  due  west  of  Joliet,  was  a  settlement  of 
several  families.  William  Davis  had  made  a  claim  and  built  a 
cabin  on  the  bank  of  the  creek.  He  had  also  built  a  blacksmith 


32  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Hears  Ago. 

shop  near  by,  being  a  blacksmith  by  trade.  He  had  commenced 
also  to  build  a  mill,  the  dam  for  which  was  nearly  completed. 
About  six  miles  above  was  the  village  of  a  Pottawattamie  chief 
of  twenty  lodges.  This  chief,  Meau-eus  by  name,  was  not  par- 
ticularly friendly  to  the  whites,  and  took  special  umbrage  at  the 
building  of  this  dam,  as  it  interfered  with  the  ascent  of  the  fish 
to  his  village. 

In  the  vicinity  of  Davis'  cabin  had  settled  two  men  of  the 
name  of  Henderson,  Allen  Howard,  William  Pettigrew  and  Wm. 
Hall,  ail  of  whom  had  families.  The  settlement  numbered  about 
twenty-five  souls.  They  had  been  twice  warned  of  their  danger 
by  Shabbonee  himself.  Some  had  left  for  Ottawa  with  their  fam- 
ilies and  afterwards  returned.  Davis  was  a  resolute  man,  and  de- 
termined for  himself,  and  persuaded  his  neighbors,  to  stand  their 
ground.  They  had  frequently  been  frightened  away  by  false 
alarms,  and  believed  themselves  strong  enough  to  meet  any  foes 
that  were  likely  to  visit  them. 

On  the  afternoon  of  May  20,  according  to  the  narrative  of 
Mrs.  Rachel  Munson  (then  Rachel  Hall),  as  given  in  the  History 
of  LaSalle  County,  the  situation  of  the  settlement  was  as  follows  : 
H.  R.  Hall,  the  eldest  son  of  William  Hall,  Mr.  Davis  and  Mr. 
Robert  Norris  were  at  work  in  the  blacksmith  shop  near  Mr. 
Hall's  house.  Two  other  sons  of  Hall,  Mr.  Howard  and  son, 
two  sons  of  Mr.  Davis,  and  John  R.  Henderson  were  breaking 
prairie  half  a  mile  from  the  house.  Henry,  George  and  William 
Davis,  Jr.,  were  at  work  on  the  mill  dam  near  by;  while  Mr. 
Pettigrew  and  wife  and  three  children,  Mrs.  Hall  and  three 
daughters.  Sylvia,  aged  17;  Rachel,  aged  15,  and  Elizabeth,  aged 
8,  and  Mr.  Davis,  were  in  the  house.  Suddenly  a  band  of  In- 
dians in  their  horrid  war  paint  entered  the  dooryard  and  rushed 
for  the  door.  Mr.  Pettigrew,  with  child  in  his  arms,  endeavored 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago.  33 

to  shut  the  door  but  was  shot  down.  Mrs,  Pettigrew,  with  her 
arms  around  Rachel  Hall,  was  the  next  victim,  the  flash  of  the 
gun  burning  the  latter's  cheek.  An  Indian  seized  a  child  of 
Pettigrew's  and  beat  out  its.  brains  against  a  stump.  A  little  son 
of  Davis  was  held  by  two  Indians  while  a  third  shot  him.  The 
deaths  of  Mr.  Hall,  Mr.  Norris  and  of  Mr.  George,  and  of  Mr. 
Davis  and  wife  quickly  followed.  Davis  was  a  strong,  powerful 
man,  and  defended  himself  some  time,  and  clubbing  his  rifle 
used  it  vigorously  for  a  while  over  the  heads  of  his  assailants,  but 
was  at  last  overpowered  and  killed.  And  so  the  savage  butchery 
went  on  until  fifteen  in  all  were  killed.  Some  succeeded  in  mak- 
ing their  escape,  but  only  two  were  spared  from  the  slaughter. 
These  were  the  two  girls,  Sylvia  and  Richel  Hall. 

WHY   THEY  WERE   SPARED,    AND    THEIR   SUBSEQUENT   HISTORY. 

The  massacre  on  Indian  creek  was  the  most  noted  one  of  the 
war.  Accounts  of  it  are  to  be  found  in  all  our  State,  and  many 
county  histories.  The  most  detailed  account  both  of  the  massa- 
cre, and  of  the  subsequent  treatment  of  the  two  girls  during  their 
brief  captivity,  is  given  in  Matson's  "  Life  of  Shabbonee,"  as  it 
was  obtained  from  one  of  the  girls.  The  massacre  was  attended 
by  the  usual  horrors  of  Indian  warfare.  The  poor  captive  girls 
were  compelled  net  only  to  see  their  parents  butchered  and  scalped 
before  their  eyes,  but  to  be  constantly  reminded  of  the  harrowing 
sight  by  seeing  the  Indians,  after  having  dressed  their  scalps,  se- 
cundum  artem,  wear  them  upon  their  necks,  when  not  suspended 
upon  poles  during  the  dance  of  triumph  which  followed  the  mas- 
sacre, and  was  several  times  repeated.  A  council  was  held  by  the 
savages  after  getting  to  their  camp,  to  decide  upon  their  fate, 
Girty  was  in  favor  of  killing  them,  but  was  overruled  by  others, 
and  their  lives  were  spared,  although  another  prisoner,  a  boy  of 
seven  years,  the  son  'of  Davis,  was  killed  after  going  about  half 


34  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago. 

a  mile,  because  he  could  not  keep  up,  and  his  scalp  was   added  to 
the  horrid  collection. 

The  reason  usually  given  for  the  escape  of  the  two  girls,  has 
been  the  hope  of  obtaining  a  large  sum  for  their  ransom.  We 
shall  presently  give  another  reason  which  throws  the  only  light  of 
romance  upon  the  dark  tragedy. 

The  girls  were  mounted  upon  ponies,  and  placed  each  be- 
tween two  mounted  Indians,  and  were  taken  with  all  speed  north- 
ward, the  Indians  fearing  pursuit  from  the  mounted  rangers.  We 
shall  not  detail  the  circumstances  attending  the  journey.  They 
traveled  rapidly  a  good  share  of  the  night,  and  the  ensuing  day, 
and  about  nine  o'clock  of  the  second  night  they  reached  the  camp 
of  Black  Hawk,  which  was  near  the  site  of  the.  present  city  of 
Madison,  Wisconsin.  From  thence  after  some  days  they  were 
taken  to  the  camp  of  the  Wmnebago  Indians  on  the  Wisconsin, 
and  from  thence  again  to  the  fort  at  Blue  Mounds,  where  they 
were  delivered  up  to  the  commandant.  Here,  at  the  fort,  they 
were  made  happy  by  meeting  their  two  uncles.  They  were  de- 
livered up  on  the  3d  of  June,  thirteen  days  after  the  massacre. 
Their  ransom  was  effected  by  the  efforts  of  their  brother,  J.  W. 
Hall,  who  had  escaped  at  the  time  of  the  massacre  by  jumping 
into  the  creek  and  hiding  under  the  bank.  Many  shots  were  fired 
at  him,  and  the  Indians,  supposing  he  was  killed,  did  not  look  for 
him,  and  thus  he  got  away  and  went  to  Ottawa,  where  he  joined 
a  regiment  of  volunteers  about  to  march  northward  in  pursuit  of 
Black  *Hawk.  He  reported  the  case  of  his  sisters  to  Colonel 
Gratiot,  the  agent  of  the  Winnebagos,  who  employed  two  Win- 
nebago  chiefs  to  effect  the  ransom.  It  required  the  payment  of 
$2,000  cash,  forty  horses,  and  a  quantity  of  blankets,  beads,  etc., 
to  rescue  the  girls. 

It  is,  as  we  have  said,  for  the  hope  of  such  ransom,  that  the 
sparing  of  these  girls  from  the  general  butchery  at  Indian  creek 
is  generally  attributed.  But  there  is  another  fact  which  seems  to 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago.  35 

have  had  a  great,  if  not  the  chief  weight,  in  inducing  the  band 
to  spare  them  against  the  wishes  of  Girty,  the  leader.  For  this 
fact  we  are  again  indebted  to  Mr.  Matson. 

Belonging  to  the  village  of  Meau-eaus,  of  which  we  have 
spoken,  located  about  six  miles  above  the  white  settlement,  were 
two  young  braves  named  To-que-me  and  Co-mee.  These  young 
men  were  well  acquainted  with  the  settlers  on  the  creek.  One  of 
them  is  said  to  have  been  a  convert  and  baptized  by  the  good 
missionary.  They  were  frequent  visitors  at  the  Hall  cabin,  and 
each  had  taken  a  strong  fancy  to  one  of  the  Hall  girls,  both  of 
whom  were  very  pretty  and  attractive.  They  had  made  propo- 
sals to  the  girls'  father  to  buy  them,  which  is  the  Indian  style  of 
getting  a  wife.  Now,  as  the  story  goes,  these  young  braves  had 
made  it  a  condition,  when  they  joined  Girty's  band,  that  the  two 
girls  should  be  spared.  They,  in  common  with  the  rest  of  Meau- 
eaus'  village,  were  enraged  at  the  building  of  the  dam  by  Davis. 
Three  years  after  they  confessed  to  Louis  Ovilmette,  a  half-breed, 
that  they  were  in  the  massacre,  and  that  it  was  through  their  in- 
fluence that  the  girls  were  spared.  And  here  we  will  give  an 
episode  to  this  affair  which  illustrates  the  strange  and  contradic- 
tory ingredients  which  are  sometimes  found  in  the  Indian  char- 
acter. 

These  two  young  men,  To-qua-me  and  Co-mee,  were  recog- 
nized by  the  Hall  girls  at  the  time  of  the  massacre,  and  were  aft- 
erwards indicted  by  the  Circuit  Court  at  Ottawa  for  their  com- 
plicity in  the  outrage.  To-qua-me  was  a  tall,  handsome  youth, 
but  his  face  was  marked  by  a  deep  scar  on  his  cheek,  which  ren- 
dered his  identification  easy. 

For  some  reason  the  case  was  not  brought  on  at  that  term  of 

• 

court,  and  they  were  allowed  to  go  on  bail  given  by  six  Potta- 
wattamie  chiefs.  Before  another  term  of  court  the  tribe  had  all 
moved  to  the  Indian  country  west  of  the  Mississippi,  the  two  in- 


36  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  lears  Ago. 

dieted  men  going  with  them.  George  E.  Walker,  a  nephew  of 
the  missionary,  was  at  this  time  the  Sheriff  of  LaSalle  county, 
and  was  to  some  extent  responsible  for  their  forthcoming  when 
wanted  for  trial.  He  was  an  Indian  trader,  well  acquainted  with 
the  Pottawattamie  language,  and  with  Indian  customs  and  char- 
acter. A  little  before  the  term  of  court  when  their  trial  should 
come  on,  he  went  alone  to  the  Indian  country,  found  the  refugees, 
and  told  his  errand.  A  council  of  the  chiefs  was  called,  at  which 
it  was  decided  that  the  two  young  men  must  return  with  Walker, 
and  stand  their  trial.  In  obedience  to  this  decision  the  young 
men,  although  they  expected  to  be  convicted  and  executed,  did 
not  hesitate  to  obey,  but  bidding  their  friends  farewell,  set  out 
with  Walker,  who  traveled  through  the  wilderness  alone  with  his 
prisoners,  camping  with  them  nights,  and  depending  in  great 
measure  upon  the  game  procured  by  them,  for  subsistence  on  the 
way.  They  could  easily  have  made  their  escape  at  any  time,  or 
could  have  murdered  their  captor. 

They  were  put  upon  their  trial,  and  were  acquitted  by  the 
jury.  It  is  probable  that  their  course  in  thus  voluntarily  return- 
ing to  stand  their  trial  had  made  a  favorable  impression  upon  the 
jury.  Besides  this,  they  were  not  identified  by  the  Hall  girls  very 
fully.  To-qua-me  had  taken  the  precaution  to  avail  himself  of 
his  Indian  right  to  paint,  and  had  done  it  so  skillfully  that  the 
scar  upon  his  cheek  did  not  show,  and  consequently  the  girls  could 
not  swear  positively  to  his  identity,  and  it  may  be  that  the  girls 
were  not  altogether  untouched  with  pity  for  their  old  admirers. 
This  is  a  surmise  which  we  make  for  the  benefit  of  the  coming 
man,  or  woman,  who  shall  weave  a  thrilling  romance  from  the  in- 
cidents of  our  early  history. 

There  may  be  some  who  would  like  to  know  the  subsequent 
history  of  the  two  girls. 

The  Legislature,  at  their  next  session,  voted  each  one  a  do- 
nation of  land  from  the  canal  tract,  and  it  is  related  in  the  history 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago.  37 

of  LaSalle  County  that  Congress  voted  a  donation  of  money. 
Rachel  Hall  was  married  in  March,  1833,  to  William  Munson, 
Esq.,  of  LaSalle  county,  and  they  became  comfortably  wealthy 
She  died  in  1870.  Before  she  died  she  placed  a  monument  over 
the  graves  of  the  victims  of  the  massacre.  She  lived  near  the 
scene  of  the  tragedy.  Sylvia  Hall  was  married  in  May  of  the 
same  year  to  Rev.  William  S.  Home,  who,  so  far  as  we  know,  is 
still  living  at  Lincoln,  Nebraska.  In  1833  she  and  her  husband 
sold  to  James  McKee,  Esq.,  then  of  Jacksonville,  the  "  float "  to 
an  eighty  of  canal  land,  which  he  located  on  the  w  |  of  s  e  £  of 
s  9;  which  piece  of  land  had  the  good  fortune  to  lie  on  the  west 
bank  of  the  then  humble  and  obscure,  but  now  famous,  historic, 
classic  and  fragrant  Des  Planes  river,  and  which  became  West 
Joliet. 

There  were  several  other  murders  of  settlers  in  this    vicinity 
and  on  the  Bureau,  but  we  will  not  stop  to  particularize  them. 

WHISKY  AND  TOBACCO. 

We  return  to  our  narrative  of  events.  When  the  alarm 
was  given  to  the  settlers  on  Fox  River,  by  Pyps,  the  nephew  of 
Shabbonee,  they  at  once  fled  in  the  direction  of  Walker's  Grove 
(Plainfield.)  Among  the  fugitives  was  one  Clark  Hollenbeck, 
who  kept  a  store  on  Fox  river,  not  far  from  what  is  now  York- 
ville,  Kendall  county.  The  two  principal  articles  of  his  stock  in 
trade  were  whisky  and  tobacco.  Of  course  he  had  to  leave  every- 
thing behind.  And  here  occurred  a  notable  instance  of  the  good 
which  these  commodities,  against  which  fanatics  declaim  so  much, 
can  do.  If  it  had  not  been  for  this  whisky  and  tobacco  of  Hollen- 
beck's,  it  is  beyond  doubt  the  settlement  at  Walker's  Grove  would 
have  shared  the  fate  of  the  one  on  Indian  creek.  For  when 
Girty's  band  entered  the  store  and  found  the  whisky  and  tobacco, 
they  could  not  resist  the  temptation  to  stop  and  have  a  big  drunk 


38  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Hears  Ago. 

and  a  big  smoke.  So,  instead  of  pursuing  the  fleeing  settlers, 
they  turned  out  their  ponies  to  grass  and  spent  the  night  in  a 
drunken  pow-wow.  This  gave  the  fugitives  time  to  reach  the 
DuPage  and  warn  the  settlers  in  the  vicinity  of  Walker's  Mills. 
Yes,  it  was  Clark  Hollenbeck's  whisky  that  saved  the  pioneers 
at  Walker's  Grove  from  massacre;  and  yet,  such  is  the  ingratitude 
of  men! — the  good  people  of  Plainfield  are  bitterly  opposed  to 
whieky,  and  Father  Beggs,  who  would  no  doubt  have  had  his 
scalp  lifted  but  for  it,  loses  no  opportunity  to  denounce  it! 

And  here   we  have   to  relate  another  incident  of  the  flight 
which  illustrates  the  strange  and  contradictory  elements  of  the  In- 
dian character :     Among  the  settlers  on  the  Fox  river  was  a   Mr. 
Harris,  who,  with  his  sons,  was  absent  hunting  their  horses  at  the 
time  the  warning  came,  and  the  rest   of  the  family  left  on   foot 
with  the  Aments  and  Clarks  from  the  same  vicinity.     But  the 
father  of  Mrs.  Harris,  Mr.  Combs,  was  an  old  man,  and  at  this 
time  he  was  entirely  disabled  by  an  attack  of  inflammatory  rheu- 
matism.    It  was  a  terrible  quandary  for  Mrs.  Harris   and    her 
neighbors.      But  Mr.  Combs   solved  it    by  saying,  "  Flee,  and 
leave  me  to  my  fate;  I  am  an  old  man  and  have  but  a  little  while 
to  live  at  best."     There  was  no  other  way  to  do  but  leave  him,  or 
stay  and  perish  with  him.     Soon  after  Mrs.  Harris  and   children 
had  gone,  the  cabin  was  entered  by  a  party  of  Indians,  showing 
that  they   went   none  too   soon,  although  they  left  their  supper 
upon  the  table,  untouched.     The   Indians,  however,  did  full  jus- 
tice to  Mrs.  Harris'  cuisine.     Mr.  Combs,  who,  of  course  expected 
to  be  killed   at  once,   was  surprised   to  find  himself  treated  with 
kindness.     The   Indians   administered   to    his  wants  during   the 
three  or  four  days  they  remained   in  the   neighborhood ;  so  that 
when    the  place  was   visited  a   few  days  after  by  a  company  of 
rangers  he  had  improved  in  health,  and   was  able  to  be  taken    to 
Walker's  Grove. 

It  is  probable  that  the  Indians  regarded  a  man  prostrated  by 
disease   with  a   kind  of  superstitious  reverence;  or,  they  might 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Hears  Ago.  39 

have  thought  that  a  man  suffering  under  inflammatory  rheuma- 
tism was  already  tortured  beyond  their  power  to  add,  any  thing  to 
his  torment. 

The  appearance  of  the  fugitives,  some  on  foot,  some  on  horse- 
back, and  some  in  wagons,  some  bareheaded  and  barefooted,  and 
crying  out  'r  Indians!  Indians!"  was  the  first  notice  that  the  set- 
tlers at  Walker's  Grove  and  vicinity  had  got  of  their  danger. 
The  consternation  produced  can  better  be  imagined  than  described. 
The  leading  men  in  the  settlement  hastily  consulted  together  as  to 
the  best  course  to  be  adopted.  Some  were  for  flight  in  one  direction 
or  another.  It  was  concluded  that  the  best  course,  at  least  for  the 
present,  was  to  get  together  and  make  a  defense.  The  cabin  of 
Father  Beggs,  on  section  16,  was  thought  the  best  one  for  the 
purpose,  and  accordingly,  they  gathered  there  and  hastily  put  it 
into  the  best  condition  to  resist  attack.  By  common  consent 
James  Walker,  a  man  of  great  energy  and  good  judgment,  was 
made  generalissimo.  Barricades  were  erected  by  tearing  down 
fences  and  out-buildings,  and  they  soon  had  a  stronghold  which 
became  known  as  "  Fort  Beggs."  Everything  that  could  be  of 
service  as  a  means  of  defense,  such  as  axes,  pitch-fork?,  etc.,  were 
collected  and  brought  to  the  fort.  The  women  made  themselves 
useful  in  melting  up  their  stock  of  pewter  ware — more  valuable 
then  than  silverware  now — and  running  musket  balls.  Only 
four  guns,  however,  could  be  mustered  that  could  be  relied  upon. 
Here  they  remained  in  anxious  suspense  for  several  days  expect" 
ing  every  moment  t«  hear  the  yells  of  savage  foes  coming  to 
attack  them. 

The  following  families  and  person  were  living  in  this  vicinity 
at  this  time :  * 

Jesse  Walker,  the  pioneer   missionary,    and    family ;  James 

*We  are  mainly  indebted  to  Father  Beggs,  who  still  lives,  for  this  list,. 


40  ft oi  them  Illinois  Fifty  lears  Ago. 

Walker  and  family ;  Reuben  Flagg  and  family ;  Timothy  B. 
Clark  and  family  ;  Rev.  Stephen  R.  Beggs  and  family ;  John 
Cooper  and  family  ;  Chester  Smith  and  family  ;  Wm.  Bradford 
and  family ;  Peter  Watkins  and  family  ;  Samuel  Shively  and 
family ;  Thos.  R.  Covel  and  family  ;  James  Matthews  and  family  ; 
Mr.  Elisha  Fish  and  family  ;  Rev.  Wm.  See  and  family  ;  Ches- 
ter Ingersol  and  family ;  James  Gilson  and  family  ;  Robert  W. 
Chapman,  James  Turner,  Orrin  Turner,  John  Shutleff  and 
Jedediah  Wooley,  Sr. 

These,  with  the  fugitives  from  Fox  river,  made  the  number, 
old  and  young,  gathered  in  Fort  Beggs,  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five.  As  may  be  readily  imagined  the  cabin  was  uncomfortably 
full. 

While  here,  expecting  every  hour  to  be  attacked,  their  fears 
were  greatly  increased  by  the  visit  of  a  man  named  Lawton,  with 
some  friendly  Indians,  who  reported  the  country  full  of  hostiles 
and  advised  the  people  in  the  fort  to  leave  at  once  for  Chicago, 
He  made  but  a  brief  stop,  he  aud  his  company  hurrying  on  to 
that  place. 

The  people  of  Chicago,  hearing  of  the  exposed  position  of 
the  settlers  on  the  Du  Page  and  the  Fox  rivers,  had  hastily  organ- 
ized a  company  of  volunteers  to  go  to  their  relief.  It  consisted 
according  to  most  accounts  of  twenty-five  or  thirty  mounted 
men.  Some  accounts  say  it  was  under  command  of  Captain 
Naper,  of  the  Naperville  settlement,  while  others  say  it  was  com- 
manded by  Captain  Sisson,  from  the  Yankee  settlement,  and  in 
other  accounts  it  is  spoken  of  as  Captain  Brown's  company.  It 
is  probable  that  all  these  persons  were  along,  and  being  active 
men  in  getting  it  up,  were  all  captains.  We  know  no  other  way 
to  reconcile  the  different  statements.  The  writer  knows  from 
personal  conversation  with  Mr.  Sisson,  that  he  was  with  the  com- 
pany. At  the  same  time  Lawton,  above  named,  a  man  who  had 
settled  on  the  Des  Planes,  near  the  present  village  of  Riverside, 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago.  41 

and  who  was  well  acquainted  with  the  Indians,  and  had  a  squaw 
for  a  wife,  with  about  the  same  number  of  friendly  Indians 
accompanied  the  mounted  rangers.  They  stayed  the  night  of  the 
21st  at  Lawton's  place,  and  on  the  next  morning  Lawton  and  his 
company  started  for  the  Big  Woods  settlement,  near  the  present 
town  of  Aurora,  where  there  was  at  the  time  an  encampment  of 
Pottawatamies.  The  rangers  struck  for  Holderman's.  They 
agreed  to  meet  at  the  cabin  of  George  Hollenbeck,  The  company 
arrived  at  Plainfield  and  stayed  over  night  and  then  proceeded 
on  to  Holderman's  grove.  They  met  Cunningham  and  Hollen- 
beck on  the  way  who  intormed  them  of  the  destruction  of  their 
property,  telling  them  it  was  useless  to  go  farther.  Notwith- 
standing this,  they  went  on  to  Holderman's,  and  stopped  over 
night,  from  whence  they  sent  an  express  to  Ottawa  to  notify  the 
settlers  of  the  safety  of  their  property.  This  express  returned 
early  next  morning  with  the  news  of  the  massacre  on  Indian 
creek.  They  then  went  to  Ottawa  and  from  thence  to  the  scene 
of  the  bloody  tragedy,  where  they  collected  and  buried  the 
remains.  The  scene  presented  was  horrid  beyond  description. 
While  the  company  was  engaged  in  this  painful  duty,  Lawton, 
after  going  to  the  Big  Woods,  had  gone  to  the  cabin  of  Hollen- 
beck, where,  instead  of  meeting  the  rangers,  he  found  himself  in 
the  company  of  a  hundred  hostile  Indians,  who  took  him  prisoner 
and  threatened  to  kill  him,  but  his  relations  with  and  knowledge 
of  Indian  character  served  him  a  good  purpose.  He  had  old 
friends  in  the  crowd  who  effected  his  liberation,  when  he  and 
his  companions  hastened  with  all  speed  for  Fort  Beggs,  reaching 
it  with  the  news  as  before  stated.  He  supposed  that  the  company 
of  rangers  had  been  all  butchered. 

The  visit  of  Lawton  greatly  increased  the   excitement   and 
consternation  at  the  Fort,     Father   Beggs  says :     "  The   stoutest 

DO  J 

hearts  failed  them,  and  strong   men  turned   pale,   while   women 


42  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Hears  Ago. 

and  children  wept  and  fainted,"  The  first  impulse  of  most  was 
to  seek  safety  in  flight.  But  this  might  be  jumping  out  of  the 
frying  pan  into  the  fire.  Mrs.  Flagg,  a  woman  of  great  judg- 
ment and  resolution,  strongly  supported  those  who  thought  it 
best  to  "hold  the  Fort."  To  this  decision,  most  fortunately, 
they  came.  It  was  afterwards  ascertained  that  there  were  Indians 
lying  in  wait  for  them.  They  made  what  preparations  they 
could  to  meet  the  attack  of  the  redskins.  They  built  bon-fires 
and  kept  them  burning  around  -the  Fort  all  night,  so  that  the 
approach  of  the  enemy  could  be  seen.  On  the  second  day  after 
Lawton's  visit  the  rangers  put  in  their  appearance  on  their  return, 
bringiag  the  news  of  the  Indian  creek  massacre  and  other  out- 
rages. It  was  then  unanimously  concluded  to  go  under  the 
protection  of  the  rangers  to  Chicago.  It  is  a  tradition  that  a 
party  of  Indians  were  lying  in  wait  for  them  at  Flagg  creek,  bu^ 
seeing  they  were  so  well  protected  did  not  venture  to  attack. 

FATE  OF  PAYNE — ANOTHER   VICTIM. 

Of  the  incidents  and  experiences  of  the  refugees  at  Chicago 
we  will  speak  bye  and  bye.  There  was  one  man  who  had  taken 
refuge  in  the  Fort  for  a  night  from  Chicago,  who,  when  the 
settlers  left,  as  related,  also  left  Fort  Beggs,  but  in  another 
direction.  This  man  was  Rev.  Adam  Payne,  a  preacher  some- 
thing after  the  independent  style  of  Lorenzo  Dow,  and  who  is 
said  to  have  been  a  man  of  great  piety,  earnestness  and  eloquence. 
He  was  on  his  way  from  Chicago  to  some  place  in  Putnam 
county  where  his  family  resided.  He.  was  strongly  urged  to 
treturn  to  Chicago  with  the  rest.  But  this  he  declined  to  do. 
He  had  been  with  the  Indians  a  good  deal,  and  preached  to  them 
often,  and  numbered  some  of  them  among  his  converts.  It  is 
said  that  Simon  Girty  had  sometimes  acted  as  his  interpreter. 
He  was  a  man  of  commanding  and  reverend  appearance,  tall  and 
finely  formed,  wearing  his  hair  and  beard  very  long.  He  was 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago.  43 

well  mounted,  and  being  armed  with  a  spy-glass  by  which  he 
could  discover  an  Indian  at  a  great  distance,  he  thought  he  might 
safely  proceed  to  his  destination.  So  when  the  citizens  and 
rangers  left  Fort  Beggs  for  Chicago,  he  started  for  Ottawa. 

That  his  confidence  was  unwarranted  was  afterwards 
apparent.  His  body,  mutilated  of  the  head,  was  found  a  day  or 
two  after  by  a  company  of  mounted  rangers,  among  whom  were 
Gurdon  S.  Hubbard  and  George  Walker,  about  five  miles  north- 
west of  Marseilles,  and  by  them  it  was  buried.  It  was  identified 
by  his  bible,  spy  glass  and  pocketbook,  with  a  sum  of  money. 
These  articles  having  for  some  reason  escaped  the  notice  of  his 
murderers,  they  were  sent  to  his  family.  It  is  a  tradition  that 
the  Indians  had  taken  his  head  as  a  trophy  and  performed  their 
war  dances  about  it,  and  that  Girty,  who  was  not  with  the  party 
that  murdered  him,  when  he  recognized  the  face  of  Payne,  was 
very  much  grieved  over  the  affair,  and  had  it  buried. 

ON  THE  DUPAGE. 

While  these  events  were  transpiring  at  Walker's  Grove  and 
elsewhere,  as  we  have  related,  a  similar  state  of  things  was  trans- 
piring in  the  settlements  on  the  DuPage.  There  were  two  settle- 
ments, one  on  the  east  and  one  on  the  west  branch.  That  on  the 
east,  including  the  junction,  is  now  embraced  in  Will  county,  and 
the  other  about  Naperville  in  DuPage  county.  Of  course  at  the 
time  both  were  included  in  Cook  county.  On  the  east  DuPage 
were  the  families  of  Pierce  Hawley  and  wife,  Stephen  J.  Scott 
and  wife,  Willard  Scott  and  wife,  Walter  Stowell  and  wife,  Israel 
P.  Blodgett*  and  wife,  Rev.  Isaac  Scarrett  and  wife,  Harry 
Board  man  and  wife,  Robert  Strong  and  wife,  Seth  Wescott  and 
wife,  Lester  Peet,  and  a  hired  man  at  Hawley's  and  another  at 
Boardman's. 

*Fatber  ol  Judge  Blodgett,  of  Chicago. 


44  M  oi  them  Illinois  Fifty  Hears  Ago. 

Up  the  west  branch  was  the  Naper  settlement,  probably 
embracing  about  the  same  number  of  settlers.  Among  these 
were  the  families  of  Baily  Hobson,  Uriah  Payne,  Capt.  Joseph 
Naper,  John  Naper,  H.  T.  Wilson.  Lyman  Butterfield,  Ira 
Carpenter,  John  Murray,  R.  M.  Sweet,  Alanson  Sweet,  C.  Foster, 
J.  Manning,  H.  Babbit  and  others. 

The  startling  news,  that  Black  Hawk  was  on  the  war  path, 
and  they  were  in  danger  from  hostile  bands,  was  brought  to  their 
settlement  by  Shata,  an  express  from  the  Potttawatamie  village  at 
Big  Woods.  There  was  of  course  the  same  excitement  and  alarm 
that  obtained  at  Walker's  Grove.  Chicago  presented  the  nearest 
haven  of  refuge,  and  thither  the  settlers  went  as  soon  as  possible, 
with  such  means  of  conveyance  as  they  could  command,  arriving 
at  Chicago  the  20th  of  May.  The  families  remained  in  Chicago, 
mostly  at  the  Fort,  for  some  weeks,  with  the  refugees  from  other 
settlements.  Several  excursions,  however,  were  made  by  the  men 
to  their  homes  to  look  after  matters,  and  ascertain  the  state  of  the 
few  crops  that  had  been  planted.  Among  others,  the  company 
of  which  we  have  spoken,  who  went  to  Plainfield  by  the  way  of 
Naperville. 

FORT    PAYNE — ANOTHER     VICTIM. 

A  short  time  after,  also,  Capt.  Jo  Naper,  Capt.  Harry  Board- 
man,  and  about  a  dozen  others,  after  going  from  Chicago  to  the 
settlement,  kept  on  to  Ottawa  to  get  assistance  from  Gen.  Atkin- 
son to  build  a  fort.  They  succeeded  in  getting  an  order  from 
Gen.  Atkinson  for  a  company  of  men  stationed  at  Joliet,  as  we 
shall  hereafter  relate,  to  go  to  Naperville.  They  built  a  fort  near 
the  present  residence  of  Lewis  Ellsworth,  which  they  called  Fort 
Payne,  in  honor  of  the  Captain.  It  was  a  stockade  with  two 
'block  houses.  While  the  Fort  was  building  an  incident  occurred 
which  showed  its  necessity.  Two  men,  named  Brown  and 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago.  45 

Buckley  went  to  Sweet's  Grove  to  obtain  a  load  of  shingles. 
While  on  the  way,  and  near  the  Grove,  Buckley  got  out  of  the 
•wagon  to  open  the  fence;  Brown  drove  through  and  on,  while 
Buckley  followed  leisurely  behind.  Suddenly  Buckley  heard  the 
sharp  report  of  a  rifle  and  saw  his  comrade  fall  dead  from  the 
wagon.  Greatly  alarmed  he  turned  back  and  fled  toward  the  settle- 
ment, reaching  the  Fort  with  hardly  strength  enough  to  tell  the 
story.  About  twenty  men  started  out  to  the  scene  of  the  disaster. 
They  found  that  the  horses  had  been  carried  off,  and  the  body  of 
Brown  was  pierced  with  three  balls.  It  was  taken  to  the  Fort 
and  buried.  Many  of  the  men  had  returned  to  the  settlement 
and  occupied  the  Fort,  and  made  occasionally  excursions  into  the 
surrounding  country.  Of  course  Capt.  Joseph  Naper  was  the 
leader  in  all  such  scouts.  Willard  Scott,  who  is  now  a  resident  of 
Naperville,  was  also  one  of  the  most  reliable  men  in  the  emergen- 
cies of  the  time,  having  a  thorough  knowledge  of  Indian  charac- 
ter, great  influence  with  them,  and  a  thorough  frontiersman. 
Serious  as  was  the  condition  of  affairs  it  did  not  prevent  the  men 
from  indulging  in  some  practical  jokes.  Such  men  as  Jo  Naper, 
Harry  Boardman,  Robt.  Strong  and  Willard  Scott,  could  not  be 
repressed  for  a  great  while  at  a  time.  Among  other  stories  of  the 
period  we  copy  the  following  from  the  history  of  DuPage  county. 

"  About  this  time  Messrs.  Hobson,  Goodwin,  Boardman  and 
Strong,  were  returning  from  Chicago  with  two  ox  teams.  Hobson 
and  Goodwin  were  riding  in  one  wagon,  and  Boardman  and 
Strong  in  the  other.  It  was  a  warm  summer's  day,  and  Strong 
laid  down  in  the  wagon  and  fell  asleep.  Discovering  that  his 
companion  was  taking  a  nap,  and  ever  on  the  qui  vive  for  a  little 
fun,  Boardman  called  to  Hobson  to  come  and  fire  his  gun  near 
Strong's  head  and  see  what  the  effect  would  be.  Hobson  did  as 
directed,  when  Strong  suddenly  awakened  by  the  report,  and 
supposing  himself  beset  with  Indians,  made  a  desperate  attempt 
to  go  down  through  the  bottom  of  the  wagon  box.  The  joke 


46  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago. 

was  now  on  Strong,  and  after  the  laugh  had  subsided  they  drove 
on.  Bye  and  bye,  Strong  concluded  to  try  Hobson's  courage 
A  plan  was  secretly  devised  between  him  and  Goodwin,  by 
which  Strong  was  to  secrete  himself  in  a  thicket  some  distance 
ahead,  and  when  Hobson  came  along,  get  up  some  demonstrations 
that  would  lead  him  to  think  there  were  Indians  there.  Aa 
Hobson's  team  approached  the  place  the  war-whoop  was  sounded 
and  one  or  two  shots  were  fired.  Goodwin  manifested  extreme 
terror,  and  seizing  both  guns  ran  off,  leaving  Hobson  alone  with 
nothing  to  defend  himself  with  but  an  ox  gad.  But  he  was  not 
much  intimidated,  and,  without  altering  his  course,  rode  past  the 
thicket,  standing  erect  in  his  wagon,  with  a  fixed  and  searching 
look  upon  the  place  from  which  the  manifestations  proceeded. 
Strong  abandoned  the  idea  of  attempting  again  to  frighten  Hob- 
son,  and  Goodwin  was  coolly  informed  that  if  he  ever  meddled 
again  with  Hobson's  rifle  he  would  be  in  danger  of  getting  the 
contents  through  his  own  head." 

Mr.  Strong  and  his  wife  still  survive  the  dangers  of  that  day 
and  of  the  intervening  fifty  years  as  well,  and  if  this  story  is  not 
correctly  reported  he  can  give  his  version  on  the  2nd  of  August 
next,  when  we  hope  to  see  him  and  all  other  survivors  of  the 
Sank  scare  at  the  pioneers'  picnic  at  the  Joliet  Fair  Grounds. 

During  the  period  we  are  reviewing  a  company  of  mounted 
rangers  was  organized  at  the  settlement  of  which  we  will  give 
the  muster  roll  bye  and  bye,  with  others  organized  at  Plainfield 
and  Yankee  Settlement. 

YANKEE  AND  HICKORY   SETTLEMENTS. 

The  alarm  was  carried  to  the  ' '  Yankee  "  and  "  Hickory 
Creek  "  Settlements  by  Hiram  Pearson,  of  Chicago,  and  Daniel 
Mack,  of  Hadley,  who  had  started  for  Danville  and  encountered 
fugitives  from  the  west,  somewhere  near  the  DesPlanes  river. 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  lears  Ago.  47 

They  returned  at  once  and  gave  the  alarm.  Most  of  those  in 
Yankee  Settlement  fled  to  Chicago,  while  those  on  the  Hickory 
and  in  the  groves  along  the  DesPlanes  and  on  Jackson  creek 
sought  safety  at  Danville  and  on  the  Wabash. 

There  were  residing  then  in  Yankee  Settlement,  including  in 
that  name  Homer  and  Lockport,  and  part  of  New  Lenox,  the 
following  men,  most  of  whom  had  families  : 

Benjamin  Butterfield,  Thomas  Fitzsimmons,  James  Glover, 
John  McMahon,  Joseph  Johnson  and  two  sons,  James  Ritchey,* 
Edward  Poor,  Joseph  and  James  Cox,  John  Helm,  Salmon 
Goodenow,  Joseph  McCune,  Selah  Lanfear,  Peter  Polly,  David 
and  Alva  Crandall,  Uriah  Wenthworth,  John  Blackstone,  John 
Ray,  Mr.  Ashing,  Mr.  McGahan,  Armstead  Ruuyon,  Holder 
Sisson,  Calvin  Rowley  and  Oren  Stevens. 

On  the  Hickory,  from  the  DesPlanes  to  Skunk's  Grove, 
were  the  following,  most  of  whom  had  families  : 

Reason  Zarley,  Philip  and  Seth  Scott,  Robert  G.  Cook  and 
father,  Wm.  Billsland,  Daniel  Robb,  Jesse  Cook,  Robert  Stevens, 
David  Maggard,  John  Grover,  Isaac  and  Samuel  Pence,  Thomas 
and  Abram  Francis,  Aaron  Ware,  Wm.  Gougar  and  sons.  Joseph 
Norman  and  son,  Judge  Davidson,  Lewis  Kercheval  and  son 
Aaron  Friend,  Ruf'us  Rice,  James  Savers,  Michael  Run  von.  Wm. 
Rice,  John  McGovney,  Wm.  Osborn,  C.  C.  Van  Horn  and 
Abram  Van  Horn  and  Henry  Watkins. 

In  Jackson  and  Reed's  Groves  were  Charles  Reed,  Joseph 
and  Levi  Shoemaker,  George  and  John  Kilpatrick,  James 
Hemphill,  Wesley  Jenkins,  Charles  Coons,  Jefferson  Ragsdale, 
Henry  and  George  Linebarger  and  sons,  Charles  Longmire  and 
Daniel  Height,  most  of  them  having  families. 

Most  of  the  settlers  on  the  Hickory   and  in   the  groves  we 

*Still  living. 


48  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  fears  Ago. 

have  named  sought  safety  "in  flight  toward  Danville  and  on  the 
Wabash.  The  same  terror  and  excitement  prevailed,  and  they 
left  in  haste,  taking  but  little  with  them,  save  the  clothes  they 
had  on.  Some  ludicrous  scenes  used  to  be  related  by  some  of  the 
participants  in|the  stampede.  The  narrators  perhaps  "  drew  a 
long  bow,"  and  we  will  not  repeat  the  stories. 

On  their  wayftoward  Danville  they  met  the  detachment  of 
four  companies  of  rangers,  and  some  of  them  turned  back  under 
their  protection. 

When  the  report  of  Indian  hostilities  and  outrages  on  the 
Fox,  DuPage  and  DesPlanes  rivers  reached  Danville,  Hon. 
Gnrdon  S.  Hubbard,  then  residing  there,  pursuaded  Col.  Moore, 
who  commanded  the  Vermillion  county  militia,  to  call  out  his 
regiment  for  the  scene  of  war  without  waiting  for  orders  from  the 
Governor.  At  his  own  expense  Mr.  Hubbard  bought  provisions 
and  ammunition,  and  also  furnished  transportation  wagons. 
The  news  was  received  on  Sunday.  By  Tuesday  the  detachment 
marched  with  rations  for  ten  days,  arrangements  being  made  for 
more  to  follow.  They  reached  the  DesPlanes  river  at  the  point 
now  known  as  Joliet.  They  commenced  at  once  to  build  on  the 
highest  point  of  the  bluff  overlooking  the  river  on  the  west  side, 
on  ground  aow  occupied  by  the  residences  of  Frank  Marsh  and 
Charles  C.  Russell,  a  stockade  with  a  block  house.  Mr.  Hubbard 
reported  to  Gen.  W.  Atkinson  at  his  headquarters  below  Ottawa,: 
by  whom  he  was  directed  to  leave  one  company  to  complete  and 
garrison  the  fort,  and  to  report  with  the  rest  of  the  regiment  at 
his  headquarters,  which  was  done  immediately. 

Among  those  who  turned  back  from  their  flight  were  Jesse 
Cook  and  Reason  Zarley  and  his  family.  They  assisted  in  the 
building  of  the  stockade,  and  Zarley  and  his  family  remained  in 
it  some  three  weeks,  until  the  company  left. 

Joseph  Naper,  of  the  Naper  Settlement,  had  applied  to  Gen. 
Atkinson  for  assistance  to  protect  his  settlement,  and  had  sue- 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Hears  Ago.  49 

ceeded  in  getting  an  order  for  its  tramsfer  to  that  point.  For  this 
act  Mr,  Zarley  never  forgave  Capt.  Jo  Naper.  Our  "  Cal  "  was 
then  a  lad  of  about  nine  years  of  age,  and  remembers  very 
distinctly  the  residence  at  Fort  Nonsense,  (as  it  was  called)  and 
also  of  seeing  a  company  of  friendly  Pottawatamies,  who  had 
encamped  under  the  bluff  about  the  old  McKee  spring.  So  that 
fifty  years  ago,  the  spot  from  whence  we  are  writing  these  glean- 
ings, was  an  Indian  camp. 

The  Vermillion  regiment  was  soon  disbanded,  and  Col. 
Hubbard  joined  a  spy  company,  composed  of  officers  and  Indian 
fighters,  for  sixty  days.  Mr.  Zarley  and  family,  after  stopping  a 
while  at  the  Sisson  Fort,  again  took  up  their  retreat  for  Danville, 
where  they  remained  until  the  trouble  was  over,  and  while  there 
James  C.  was  added  to  the  family. 

Robert  Stevens  and  David  Maggard  also  returned  and  made 
a  private  stronghold  in  a  rocky  ravine  which  then  existed  in  the 
bluff  opposite  the  present  paper  mill,  and  which  was  con- 
cealed from  sight  by  a  thick  growth  of  red  cedar  and  other  shrubs 
and  vines. 

AT   CHICAGO. 

Having  conducted  the  fleeing  settlers  from  various  localities 
to  Chicago,  it  is  time  that  we  should  turn  our  attention  to  that 
point  and  see  what  kind  of  a  "  Zoar"  it  proved  to  be.  Like  the 
oity  where  Lot  found  refuge,  it  was  then  chiefly  noted  for  its 
smallness.  Besides  the  Fort  and  its  barracks,  and  the  light 
house,  there  were  but  five  or  six  buildings,  mostly  log  huts,  on  all 
that  ground  now  covered  by  immense  business  blocks  and  palace 
hotels.  Of  course  such  a  place  could  but  very  poorly  accommo- 
date the  families  that  fled  thither.  Fort  Dearborn  had  been 
evacuated  by  an  order  of  Gen.  Macomb,  issued  in  1831,  and, 
although  in  February,  1832,  he  had  issued  an  order  that  Major 
Whistler,  of  the  2nd  Infantry  at  Niagara,  on  being  relieved  at 


50  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago. 

that  place,  should  repair  with  the  troops  under  his  command  to- 
Fort  Dearborn  at  Chicago,  yet  he  did  not  arrive  until  the  17th  of 
June.  Consequently  the  Fort  and  barracks  were  unoccupied  by 
a  garrison  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  war.  The  fugitives  there- 
fore mostly  found  a  refuge  in  the  quarters  at  the  Fort,  but  it  was 
so  crowded  as  to  be  very  uncomfortable.  Father  Beggs  saysi 
"  Two  or  three  families  of  our  number  were  put  into  a  room 
fifteen  feet  square,  with  as  many  more  families,  and  here  we  stayed 
crowding  and  jamming  each  other  for  several  days," 

But  this  was  not  the  only  trouble.  In  their  hasty  flight 
most  of  the  settlers  had  hardly  thought  of  the  matter  of  supplies, 
and  little  or  nothing  was  to  be  found  in  Chicago,  so  that  it 
seemed  as  though  the  choice  was  between  being  scalped  or  starved. 
Archibald  Clyburne  bad  been  contractor  to  supply  the  garrison- 
with  beef  and  also  for  the  Pottawatamie  Indians,  and  from  him 
some  relief  was  obtained. 

Father  Beggs  relates,  in  his  book,  two  startling  incidents, 
which  added  greatly  to  the  misery  of  the  situation.  The  first 
was  a  severe  thunder  storm,  during  which  one  end  of  the  room, 
in  which  he  and  others  were  quartered,  was  struck  by  lightning, 
the  fluid  passing  down  through  a  room  below,  in  which  was  a  keg 
of  powder  within  a  few  inches  of  the  track.  The  other  incident 
or  incidents  we  give  in  the  Elder's  own  words :  "  The  next 
morning  our  first  babe  was  born,  and  dnring  our  stay  fifteen 
tender  infants  were  added  to  our  number.  One  may  imagine  the 
confusion  of  the  scene — children  were  crying  and  women  were 
complaining  within  doors,  while  without  the  tramp  of  soldiers,  the 
rolling  of  drums,  and  the  roar  of  cannon  added  to  the  din." 
No  words  of  ours  could  add  anything  to  this  graphic  statement. 

The  soldiers  at  this  time  must  have  been  the  volunteer 
organizations  that  had  been  formed  for  defense  before  the  arrival 
of  the  regulars. 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago.  51 

There  is  still  extant  a  muster  roll  of  the  organization  of  the 
•citizens  formed  early  in  May  on  the  first  alarm.  We  copy  it 
entire  from  one  of  the  Fergus  pamphlets : 

"  May  2,  1832. — We,  the  undersigned,  agree  to  submit  our- 
selves, for  the  time  being,  to  Gholson  Kercheval  Captain,  George 
W.  Dole  and  John  S.  C.  Hogan,  First  and  Second  Lieutenants, 
as  commanders  of  the  militia  of  the  town  of  Chicago,  until  all 
apprehension  of  danger  from  the  Indians  may  have  subsided  :" 

Rich  I.  Hamilton,  Jeddiah  Woolley,  Jesse  B.  Brown, 
Oeorge  H.  Walker,  Isaac  Harmon,  A.  W.  Taylor,  Samuel  Miller, 
James  Kinzie,  John  F.  Herndon,  David  Pemeton,  Benj.  Harris, 
James  Gindsay,  8.  T.  Gage,  Samuel  Debaif,  Rufus  Brown,  John 
Wellmaker,  Jeremiah  Smith,  Wm.  H.  Adams,  Herman  S.  Bond, 
James  T.  Osborne,  Willian  Smith,  E.  D.  Harmon,  Isaac  D. 
Harmon,  Charles  Moselle,  Joseph  Lafromboise,  Francis  Lebarque, 
J.  W.  Zarley,  Michael  Ooilraette,  Henry  Boucha,  Christopher  She- 
daker,  Claude  Lafromboise,  David  McKee,  David  Wade,  Ezra 
Bond,  William  Bond,  Robert  Thompson,  Samuel  Ellis. 

This  must  have  comprised  nearly  all  the  abled-bodied  citizens 
of  Chicago  at  the  time,  and  of  this  number  some  were  from 
outside.  Jeddiah  Woolley  and  J.  W.  Zarley  were  from  our  terri- 
tory; the  last  named  being  the  oldest  son  of  Reason  Zarley,  and 
George  H.  Walker  belonged  in  Ottawa. 

When  we  remember  that  only  twenty  years  before  Chicago 
had  been  the  scene  of  a  most  brutal  massacre,  in  which  the 
Pottawatamie  Indians  had  joined,  we  cannot  wonder  that  the  few 
settlers  there,  in  the  spring  of  1832,  were  filled  with  alarm,  and 
that  they  looked  anxiously  for  the  arrival  of  Major  Whistler  and 
his  command.  On  June  17th  they  arrived,  but  their  arrival, 
much  as  it  had  been  desired,  was  not  without  its  disadvantages. 
He  demanded  possession  of  the  government  barracks  for  the  use 
•of  his  own  family  and  officers.  Father  Beggs  says :  a  The 


52  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  lears  Ago- 

Major  and  bis  family  came  into  our  room  and  we  were  turned 
into  the  pitiless  rain  storm  that  afternoon.  We  found  shelter  in- 
an  open  house,  where,  from  the  dampness  and  exposure,  Mrs. 
Beyers  and  the  child  took  a  severe  cold.  Col.  Hamilton  then 

DC 

gave  us  the  use  of  one  of  his  small  rooms." 

The  history  of  Du Page  county  says  :  "When  the  regular 
troops  came  on  from  Michigan  the  settlers  were  ordered  to  quit 
the  Fort,  and  every  hovel  that  would  afford  a  shelter  was  imme- 
diately crowded  with  occupants.  At  this  time  there  were  several 
women  and  children  in  the  Fort,  whose  husbands  and  fathers- 
were  at  Naper  Settlement,  building  the  fort  there.  These  would 
have  been  turned  out  of  doors  had  it  not  been  for  the  entreaties 
of  the  volunteer  company.  By  an  exceedingly  liberal  provision 
Mrs.  Hawley  and  six  children,  Mrs.  Blodgett  and  four  children,* 
and  Mrs.  Hobson  and  five  children,  were  allowed  to  occupy  an 
upper  room  in  the  establishment,  about  ten  feet  square." 

Such  was  the  uncomfortable  position  of  the  fugitives  in 
Chicago  that  many  preferred  to  return  to  their  homes  and  take 
the  risk  of  Indians,  and  as  time  passed,  and  the  Indians 
seemed  to  have  left  the  vicinity  and  the  cloud  of  war  was  passing 
north  and  west,  their  apprehension  in  a  great  measure  subsided, 

ARRIVAL  OF   GENERAL  SCOTT  AND   THE  CHOLERA. 

On  the  evening  of  the  10th  of  July  Gen.  Scott  arrived  at 
Chicago.  Four  steamers  had  been  chartered  by  the  government 
for  the  transportation  of  troops  and  supplies  to  Chicago.  At  this 
time  no  steamers  had  ever  plowed  the  waters  of  Lake  Michigan t 
and  from  Mackinaw  to  Chicago  there  were  no  light-houses,  no 
beacon  lights,  DO  piers  or  wood  stations,  and  the  few  natural 
harbors  were  unimproved.  At  Chicago  a  sand  bank  prevented 
the  ingress,  of  any  craft  that  drew  over  two  feet  of  water,  the 
mouth  of  the  river  being  then  as  far  south  as  Madison  street. 

*  One  of  these  children  is  Judge  Blodgett,  of  Chicago. 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Tears  Ago.  53 

The  steamers  chartered  by  the  United  States  were  the  Henry 
Clay,  Superior,  Sheldon  Thompson  and  William  Penn.  On  the 
voyage  the  cholera  broke  out  among  the  troops  and  crews  on 
board  these  vessels  so  violently  and  fatally  that  two  of  them  were 
were  compelled  to  abandoned  the  voyage,  proceeding  no  further 
than  Fort  Gratiot,  at  the  entrance  of  Lake  Huron.  The  scene  on 
the  Henry  Clay  was  especially  terrible.  All  discipline  was  at  an 
end.  As  soon  as  the  boat  reached  the  wharf  every  man  sprang 
ashore,  and  sought  refuge  in  the  woods,  and  some  lay  down  in  the 
streets,  and  under  cover  of  the  river  bank  and  died  unaided  and 
alone.  On  the  Sheldon  Thompson,  one  of  the  boats  which  came 
on,  the  disease  did  not  break  out  until  after  passing  the  Maniton 
Islands,  but  before  reaching  Chicago  thirteen  were  committed  to 
the  waters  of  Lake  Michigan.  Three  more  died  during  the  night 
making  sixteen.  In  the  course  of  the  next  day  and  night 
eighteen  others  died  and  were  buried  near  the  corner  of  Lake 
street  and  Michigan  avenue.  In  the  four  following  days  fifty- 
four  more  died,  making  an  aggregate  of  eighty-eight.  These 
facts  are  related  by  Capt.  A.  Walker,  commander  of  the  Sheldon 
Thompson,  which  reached  Chicago  July  10th,  the  first  steamer 
that  had  ever  anchored  off  Chicago.  She  carried  Gen.  Scott  and 
staff  and  troops,  who  were  landed  in  yawls.  The  William  Penn 
with  troops  and  military  stores  arrived  a  week  later. 

No  language  can  describe  the  alarm  and  distress  produced  by 
this  arrival,  which  had  been  so  ardently  hoped  for.  All  were  as 
anxious  to  escape  from  Chicago  as  they  had  been  a  few  weeks 
before  to  get  there.  This  was  the  first  visitation  of  cholera  in  the 
United  States,  and  the  terror  which  the  mere  name  then  produced 
cannot  be  imagined. 

This  outbreak  of  cholera  of  course,  for  a  time,  delayed  the 
advance  of  Gen.  Scott.  On  the  20th  of  July  he  moved  his 
camp  to  the  DesPlanes  river,  hoping  that  the  change  would  be 


54  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Hears  Ago. 

for  the  benefit  of  his  men.  His  camp  was  founded  on  the  ground 
now  occupied  by  Riverside.  Leaving  Col.  Cummings  in  com- 
mand he,  with  twelve  men  and  two  baggage  wagons,  started  in 
advance.  He  ordeded  Col.  Cummings  to  advance  as  soon  as  the 
health  of  the  troops  would  admit.  The  train  of  wagons  and 
horses  had  been  brought  overland  from  Ohio,  where  they  were 
purchased.  Other  men  and  teams  from  the  surrounding  country 
were  pressed  in  the  service.  Selah  Lanfear  and  his  team  from 
Yankee  Settlement  was  among  the  number  so  employed,  and  one 
of  the  teamsters  was  a  lad  of  seventeen  of  the  name  of  Robert 
N.  Murray,  the  son  of  a  settler  at  Naperville.  This  lad  is  now 
the  Hon.  Judge  Murray  of  DuPage  county. 

Col.  Cummings,  with  the  main  body  of  Scott's  forces,  started 
on  in  about  ten  days,  and  had  reached  the  present  site  of  Beloit, 
on  Rock  river,  when  the  news  of  the  battle  of  Bad- Ax  was  brought 
to  them  with  orders  to  move  to  Rock  Island. 

At  this  point  the  cholera  again  broke  out  among  the  troops 
that  had  gathered  there  from  various  points,  including  the  ran- 
gers or  volunteer  companies  that  had  been  organized.  Here  Gen. 
Scott  displayed  as  great  heroism  as  in  the  battle-field.  He  fear- 
lessly exposed  himself  in  his  attentions  to  the  sick,  both  privates 
and  officers,  showing  the  utmost  kindness  while,  at  the  same 
time,  enforcing  the  most  rigid  sanitary  regulations.  Four  officers 
and  about  sixty  men  were  the  victims  of  the  scourge  at  this  point. 

As  may  readily  be  imagined  the  arrival  of  Gen.  Scott  with 
the  cholera  produced  a  stampede  of  the  settlers  from  Chicago 
quite  as  sudden  and  as  hasty  as  the  one  produced  a  few  weeks 
before  by  the  alarm  of  Indian  outrages  to  Chicago.  Fort  Dear- 
born, although  now  garrisoned,  was  no  protection  from  the 
enemy  which  had  crossed  the  ocean  and  which  travelled  every- 
where, without  any  regard  for  quarantine  regulations  or  State  or 
army  lines. 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  lears  Ago.  55 

John  Wat-kins,  the  well  known  ancient  pedagogue,  and  who 
is  now  a  resident  of  this  city,  tells  us  that  when  Gen.  Scott  sent 
word  from  the  steamer  that  he  was  going  to  land,  he  thought  he 
would  rather  risk  the  Indians  than  the  cholera,  and  he  started  for 
his  father's,  Henry  Watkins,  on  Hickory  creek.  But  on  arriving 
at  his  father's  cabin  he  found  it  empty,  the  family  having  gone  to 
the  Wabash  with  the  settlers  in  that  vicinity.  He  then  turned 
his  face  once  more  for  Chicago,  but  on  his  way  he  met  Col. 
Hamilton  and  Gen.  Brown,  who,  notwithstanding  their  high 
military  titles,  were  fleeing  from  this  new  enemy.  They  reported 
such  a  fatality  among  the  troops  that  he  joined  them  in  their 
flight  to  Danville. 

After  the  alarm  was  over  he  returned  to  Chidago  and  opened 
his  school.  His  name  appears  as  one  of  the  witnesses  to  the 
Indian  Treaty  of  1833,  and  he  is  one  of  the  few  remaining  survi- 
vors of  that  period. 

EARLIEST   WAR   RECORD   OF    WILL   COUNTY. 

Many  of  the  settlers  hai  alreidy  venture  1  to  return  to  their 
locations,  Besides  the  two  forts  we  have  already  named  a  block 
house  was  built  in  Yankee  Settlement  on  the  Sisson  place,  and 
the  men  placed  themselves  under  the  command  of  Holder  Sisson, 
a  soldier  of  the  war  of  1812. 

Many  of  the  settlers  also  returned  to  Walker's  Grove  and 
Napier  Settlement,  and  looked  after  their  crops  and  farm  work 
during  the  day,  and  found  refuge  in  the  block  houses  at  night. 

Capt.  Joseph  Naper  was  in  command  at  the  block  house  in 
Napier  Settlement,  James  Walker  at  Walker's  Grove,  and  Holder 
Sisson,  at  Yankee  Settlement. 

A  company  of  mounted  rangers  was  organized  at  each  of 
these  three  localities,  and  they  were  duly  mustered  into  the 
United  States  service,  and  they  would,  unquestionably,  have  made 
a  brilliant  military  record  if  they  had  had  an  opportunity.  They 


56  Moithern  Illinois  Fifty  lears  Ago. 

each  one,  no  doubt,  drew  their  land  warrants. 

We  give  the  muster  roll  of  each  of  these  companies,  taken 
from  the  Adjutant-General's  office  at  Washington. 

Muster  roll  of  a  detachment  of  mounted  volunteers^  com- 
manded by  Captain  James  Walker,  enrolled  June  25th,  1832,  in 
Cook  county,  Illinois,  and  mustered  out  of  service  August 
12th.  1832: 

James  Walker,  Captain. 

Lieutenants — First,  Chester  Smith ;  Second,  George  Hollen- 
beck. 

M 

Sergeants  — Wm.  See,  Edmund  Weed,  Chester  Ingersoll. 
Corporals — Elisha  Fish,  Reuben  Flagg,  Peter  Watkins. 
Musician — Edward  A.  Rogers. 

Privates — B.  F.  Watkins,  Henry  Jones,  Thomas  Woolley, 
Henry  Weakley,  Ralph  Smith,  Elisha  Curtiss,  Samuel  Fountain, 
Thomas  R.  Covell,  E.  G.  Ament,  Peter  Watkins,  J.  Woolley,  A. 
C.  Ament,  James  Gillson,  Hiram  Ament,  D.  J.  Clark.  Total, 
25  men. 

Rev.  S.  R.  Beggs  was  also  a  member  of  this  company,  but 
being  detained  in  Chicago,  his  name  was  riot  on  the  muster  roll, 
but  he  got  his  land  warrant. 

Muster  roll  of  a  company  of  mounted  volunteers,  com- 
manded by  Capt.  Holder  Sisson,  enrolled  July  23,  1832,  in  Cook 
county,  Illinois,  for  defense  of  northern  portion  of  the  State  of 
Illinois,  against  the  Sac  and  Fox  Indians,  and  mustered  out  of 
service  August  13,  1832: 

Captain — Holder  Sisson. 

Lieutenants — Fiwt,  Robert  Stevens;  Seccond,  W.  T.  Bradford. 

Sergeants — James  Sayers,  Uriah  Wentworth,  John  Cooper, 
Abraham  Francis. 

Corporals — Armstead  Runion,  Thomas  Coombs,  Edward 
Poor,  Cornelius  C.  Van  Horn. 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago.  57 

Privates — William  Gougar,  John  Gougar,  Nicholas  Gougar, 
Daniel  Gougar,  Aaron  Moore,  Daniel  Robb,  Daniel  Height, 
Aaron  Friend,  Joseph  Norman,  David  Maggard,  Aaron  Wares, 
Thomas  Francis,  John  McDeed,  James  McDeed,  Abraham  Van- 
Horn,  Simon  O.  VanHorn,  Wm.  Rogers,  Calvin  Rowley,  Selah 
Lanfear,  David  Crandall,  Alva  Crandall,  Daniel  Mack,  Wm. 
Barlow,  Joseph  Johnson,  James  Johnson,  Silas  Henderson,  Pat- 
terson Frame,  Oren  Stevens,  Joseph  Cox,  Alfred  Johnson,  Lucius 
Scott,  Benjamin  MacGard,  Anderson  Poor,  Samuel  Fleming, 
David  Smith,  Peter  Lemesis,  Timothy  B.  Clark,  Barrett  Clark, 
Wm.  Clark,  Enoch  Darling,  John  Wilson,  Wm.  Chapman,  O,  L. 
Turner,  James  Mathews,  Peter  Lampseed.  Total,  60  men. 

Of  the  DuPage  and  Naper  Settlement  Company  we  have  not 
the  dates  of  enrollment  and  muster  out,  but  probably  it  would  be 
about  the  same  as  in  the  other  companies. 

Captain — Joseph  Naper. 

Lieutenants — First,  Alanson  Sweet;  Second,  Sherman  King. 

Sergeants — First,  S.  M.  Salsbury;  Second,  John  Manning; 
Third,  Walter  Stowell;  Fourth,  John  Naper, 

Corporals — First,  T.  E.  Parsons;  Second,  Lyman  Butterfield; 
Third,  I.  P,  Bledgett;  Fourth,  R.  N.  Murray. 

Privates— P.  F.  W.  Peck,  William  Barber,  Richard  W. 
Sweet,  John  Stevens,  jr.,  Calvin  M.  Stowell,  John  Fox,  Dennis 
Clark,  Caleb  Foster,  Augustine  Stowell,  George  Fox,  T.  Parsons, 
Daniel  Landon,  William  Gault,  Uriah  Paine,  John  Stevens,  Seth 
Westcott,  Henry  T.  Wilson,  Christopher  Paine,  Bailey  Hobson, 
Josiah  H.  Giddings,  Anson  Ament,  Calvin  Ament,  Edmund 
Harrison,  Willard  Scott,  Percy  Hawley,  Peter  Wickoff. 

Of  this  last  campany,  six,  viz :  Walter  Stowell,  I.  P. 
Blodgett,  Seth  Westcott,  Josiah  H.  Giddings,  Willard  Scott  and 
Percy  (or  Pierce)  Hawley,  were  from  the  present  bounds  of  Will 
county. 


58  Aoithern  Illinois  Fifty  Hears  Ago. 

In  Captain  Walker's  company  are  some  of  the  Fox  river 
settlement,  who  had  fled  thither.  The  Second  Lieutenant  was  of 
this  number,  who,  no  doubt,  wanteti  revenge  for  the  loss  of  his 
whisky  and  tobacco. 

In  Sisson's  company  there  are  several  from  the  Walker's 
Grove  or  Plain  field  Settlement,  and  'some  names  which  are 
entirely  new  to  us.  For  the  Naper  and  DuPage  list  we  are 
indebted  to  Wm.  Naper,  a  son  of  the  Captain,  and  the  list  of  the 
two  other  companies  was  kindly  copied  for  us  by  our  young  friend 
Nat  Rowell;  the  clerical  force  in  the  Adjutant-General's  office  at 
Washington  being  altogether  inadequate  to  the  herculean  labor. 


THE  LAST  OF  3ABBONEE. 


Before  closing  our  gleanings  of  fifty  years  ago  we  wish  to 
say  something  more  respecting  Shabbonee,  the  white  man's  friend. 
After  giving  the  settlers  warning  of  the  danger,  as  we  have 
related,  he,  with  his  band  of  braves,  joined  the  forces  of  Gen. 
Atkinson,  and  rendered  important  aid  in  the  brief  campaign, 
acting  in  the  capacity  of  scouts 

After  the  war  (in  1833)  a  treaty  was  held  at  Chicago,  by 
which  the  Pottawatamies  disposed  of  their  remaining  lands  to  the 
United  States,  except  some  specific  reservations  to  Caldwell, 
Robinson,  Shabbonee  and  others,  Indians  and  half- breeds.  Two 
.sections,  including  the  grove,  which  Shabbonee  for  so  many 
years  made  his  home,  were  reserved  to  him.  It  was  duly  sur- 
veyed under  direction  of  Major  Langham,  Surveyor- General  of 
Illinois  and  Missouri  at  the  time,  and  Shabbonee  supposed  that 
it  was  secured  to  him  and  heirs  forever.  In  1837,  he  accompanied 
his  band,  130  in  number,  to  their  reservation  in  Missouri.  He 
had  been  notified  by  the  Indian  agent  that  al!  of  the  band,  except 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  lears  Ago.  59 

himself  and  family,  mast  remove  thither.  He  could  not  endure 
the  thought  of  parting  with  his  tribe,  and  therefore  he  accompa- 
nied them.  But  now  he  had  to  pay  the  penalty  of  his  acts  of 
friendship  toward  the  white  settlers  in  1826  and  1832,  The 
reservation  of  the  Sacs  and  Foxes  was  very  near  that  of  the 
Pottawatamies.  Black  Hawk  was  still  living,  (be  died  October  3, 
1838,)  and  he  and  his  tribe  cherished  teelings  of  revenge  against 
the  white  man's  friend,  the  brave,  by  whose  side  he  had  fought 
for  the  English  in  1812.  No  sooner  had  Shabbonee  and  his 
family  reached  their  new  home  than  a  bitter  warfare  was  com- 
menced against  them,  which  resulted  in  the  death  of  his  son, 
Pypagee,  and  of  his  nephew,  Pyps,  and  in  driving  Shabbonee  and 
the  rest  of  his  family  back  to  Illinois.  He  narrowly  escaped  with 
his  life  from  the  vengeance  of  his  Indian  enemies. 

Shabbonee  and  his  family,  about  twenty  in  number, 
lived  on  his  reservation  in  the  grove  which  bears  his  name 
until  1849.  At  this  time  the  Pottawatamies  had  been  again 
removed  to  a  new  reservation  in  Kansas,  and  Shabbonee  again 
sought  with  bis  family  a  home  among  them.  He  remained  with 
them  about  three  years,  when  he  felt  a  strong  desire  to  return 
again  to  bis  old  kome  in  DeKalb  county.  He  fondly  supposed 
that  his  rights  would  be  respected  by  the  people  for  whose  safety 
he  bad  incurred  the  deadly  hatred  of  his  red  brethren.  But  on 
his  reaching  the  beautiful  grove,  which  he  and  his  family  had 
occupied  for  more  than  forty  years,  he  found  it  in  the  possession 
of  a  stranger — that  it  was  lost  to  him  forever. 

When  the  survey  of  the  public  lands  lying  north  of  the 
old  Indian  boundary  was  made  the  Deputy  Surveyor,  under 
instructions  from  the  Land  Department,  ignored  the  former  sur- 
vey of  the  reservation,  and  included  it  in  the  regular  section 
lines  of  the  general  U.  S.  survey,  and  during  Shabbonee's  absence 
in  Kansas  the  land  had  been  sold  at  public  auction  at  Dizon. 


60  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Years  Ago- 

When  an  appeal  was  afterwards  made  in  Shabbonee's  behalf  to 
the  Commissioner  of  the  Land  Department,  the  answer  was 
returned  that  Shabbonee  had  forfeited  and  lost  his  title  to  the 
lands  by  leaving  them.  It  is  said  that  when  he  'came  to  a  full 
conviction  of  his  forlorn  condition,  "albeit,  all  unused  to  the 
melting  mood,"  he  shed  bitter  tears.  The  brute  who  had  got 
possession  of  his  old  home  cursed  him  for  having  cut  a  few  lodge 
poles  in  the  grove  which  he  thought  was  his  own,  and  unfeelingly 
ordered  him  to  leave  the  grove  with  bis  family.  This  he  did,  and 
never  again  visited  it. 

Let  it  be  said  to  the  credit  of  Ottawa  that  the  citizens  of 
that  place  raised  a  fund,  bought  him  twenty  acres  of  timber  land 
on  the  Mazon,  built  him  a  comfortable  house,  and  supplied  him 
with  means  to  start  housekeeping  again.  Here  he  lived  until  his 
death,  the  17th  of  July,  1859,  in  the  84th  year  of  his  age. 

Gurdon  S.  Hubbard,  who  knew  Shabbonee  well,  bears  this 
testimony  to  his  character  :  "  From  my  first  acquaintance  with 
him,  which  began  in  the  fall  of  1818,  to  his  death,  I  was  im^ 
pressed  with  the  nobleness  of  his  character,  Physically,  he  was 
as  fine  a  specimen  of  a  man  as  I  ever  saw — tall,  well  proportioned, 
strong  and  active,  with  a  face  expressing  great  strength  of  mind 
and  goodness  of  heart. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  in  the  memorable  Harrison  campaign 
of  1840,  there  was  published  in  the  Chicago  Daily  American,  a 
letter  signed  by  "Chamblee,"  (Shabbonee)  aid  to  Tecuraseh,"  and 
"  B.  Caidwell,  (Saug-a-nash)  Captain,"  in  which  they  contradict  a 
•campaign  slander  of  Harrison's  opponents,  charging  him  with 
cowardice  and  inhumanity.  This  is  dated  at  Council  Bluffs, 
March  23,  1840.  They  say  :  "The  first  time  we  got  acquainted 
with  Gen.  Harrison  was  at  the  council  fire  of  Old  Tempest,  the 


Northern  Illinois  Fifty  Hears  Ago.  6t 

late  Gen.  Wayne,  at  his  headquarters  on  \he  Wabash  at  Green- 
ville, in  1796.  From  that  time  till  1811  we  had  many  a  friendly 
smoke  with  him,  but  in  1812  we  changed  our  tobacco  smoke  into 
powder  smoke.  Then  we  found  Gen.  Harrison  was  a  brave 
warrior  and  humane  to  his  prisoners,"  etc. 

In  1861  a  subscription  was  taken  up  in  Ottawa,  Morris  and 
other  river  towns,  to  erect  a  monument  to  Shabbonee,  but 
the  breaking  out  of  the  war  led  to  its  abandonment.  He  was 
buried  with  considerable  public  demonstration  in  the  cemetery  at 
Morris,  and  only  a  plain  marble  slab  points  out  where  repose  the 
remains  of  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  FEIEKD. 

The  Black  Hawk  war,  of  which  we  have  given  a  brief  sketch 
in  the  preceding  pages,  was  not  without  its  compensation.  The 
officers  and  soldiers  who  were  sent  to  the  aid  of  the  settlers,  and 
who  marched  across  our  prairies  and  along  our  rivers  carried 
back  with  them  glowing  accounts  of  the  beauty  and  fertility  of 
the  country,  which  served  to  direct  attention  and  emigration  to 
Northern  Illinois,  then  the  Far  West,  and  almost  a  wilderness. 
It  is  not  easy  to  realize  as  one  is  whirled  by  the  winged  horse  at 
will  by  cultivated  farms,  past  pleasant  homes  and  through  the 
flourishing  towns  and  cities  that  now  cover  this  region,  that  fifty 
years  ago  the  few  scattered  settlers  were  fleeing  from  their  log 
cabins  to  escape  the  murderous  raids  of  savage  Indians.  And  as 
one  visits  the  great  Briareus  of  the  North  west,  and  sees  how  it 
reaches  with  its  giant  arms  two  oceans,  and  gathers  up  the  spoil 
of  many  States,  that  fifty  years  ago  were  without  a  name, — how  it 
has  covered  with  palace  hotels,  with  cathedral  churches,  with  great 
warehouses  and  elevators,  with  miles  on  miles  of  compact,  well- 
built  business  blocks,  and  with  beautiful  villas,  the  low,  wet 
prairies  and  sloughs  of  fifty  years  ago, — it  is  hard,  we  say,  for  a 


62  Northern  Illinois  Fifty  lears  Ago. 

stranger  to  believe  that  at  the  period  of  which  we  have  been 
writing,  Chicago  afforded  but  scant  room,  and  poor  protection  to 
the  few  pioneer  families  that  fled  thither  from  the  narrow  circuit 
of  forty  miles.  And  yet  there  are  still  living  some  who  can  say, 
<%  Lo,  our  eyes  have  seen  all  this !" 

JOLJET,  August,  1882. 


ERRATA. 

On  page  23,  before  the  10th  line  from  bottom,*  these  word* 
should  be  supplied  : — was  concealed.     Col.  Henry 


PRESSBOARD 

.PAMPHLET  BINDER 

Manufactured  by 

JGAYLORD  BROS.  Inc. 

Syracuse,  N.Y. 

Stockton,  Calif. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 

977.3W85F  C001 

FIFTY  YEARS  AGO:  OR,  GLEANINGS  RESPECTIN 


